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My latest MoneySense blog on ETFs looks in more depth at the four new fixed-income ETFs Vanguard Canada debuted in February, and how they sit versus existing funds in the category. Click on the highlighted text to retrieve the full article: Latest crop of Vanguard ETFs keeps up pressure on fees.
The Hub noted the arrival of these new fixed-income ETFs when they were announced — here — but since then the 2017 edition of the MoneySense ETF All-stars has come out. For this article, we were interested in what some of the six panelists responsible for selecting the All-Star ETFs had to say about the new Vanguard funds.
The chart below, prepared by Forstrong Global Asset Management Inc. from industry sources, shows the four fixed-income categories the new products cover: Canadian Broad Government bonds; Canadian Broad Corporate; Canadian Short Government; and Canadian Long Aggregate. As the chart shows, before these new arrivals, there was one iShares fixed-income ETF in three of those categories, except for the well-served Canadian Short Government bond segment, which had one iShares offering, two BMO products and one from First Asset. Actual product names and tickers are shown below, along with data on Duration, MERs, credit quality and the mix of government and corporate issues:
| Canadian Broad Government | |||||||||||
| Ticker | Name | MER1 | Duration1 | AAA2 | AA2 | A2 | BBB2 | Federal/ Agencies2 | Provincial/Municipal2 | Corporate2 | |
| VGV | Vanguard Canadian Government Bond Index ETF | 0.25%3 | 8.0 | 54% | 42% | G4% | 0% | 51% | 49% | 0% | |
| XGB | iShares Canadian Government Bond Index ETF | 0.39% | 7.9 | 55% | 28% | 16% | 0% | 51% | 49% | 0% | |
| Canadian Broad Corporate | |||||||||||
| Ticker | Name | MER1 | Duration1 | AAA2 | AA2 | A2 | BBB2 | Federal/ Agencies2 | Provincial/Municipal2 | Corporate2 | |
| VCB | Vanguard Canadian Corporate Bond Index ETF | 0.23%3 | 5.5 | 7% | 30% | 24% | 40% | 0% | 0% | 100% | |
| XCB | iShares Canadian Corporate Bond Index ETF | 0.44% | 6.1 | 4% | 25% | 34% | 38% | 0% | 0% | 100% | |
| Canadian Short Government | |||||||||||
| Ticker | Name | MER1 | Duration1 | AAA2 | AA2 | A2 | BBB2 | Federal/ Agencies2 | Provincial/Municipal2 | Corporate2 | |
| VSG | Vanguard Canadian Short-Term Government Bond Index ETF | 0.18%3 | 2.7 | 77% | 18% | 4% | 0% | 74% | 26% | 0% | |
| FGB | First Asset Short Term Government Bond Index Class ETF | 0.25%3 | 2.9 | 72% | 17% | 12% | 0% | 71% | 29% | 0% | |
| ZFS/L4 | BMO Short Federal Bond Index ETF | 0.23% | 2.6 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 100% | 0% | 0% | |
| ZPS/L4 | BMO Short Provincial Bond Index ETF | 0.28% | 3.0 | 9% | 55% | 36% | 0% | 0% | 100% | 0% | |
| CLF | iShares 1-5 Year Laddered Government Bond Index ETF | 0.17% | 2.5 | 61% | 21% | 18% | 0% | 49% | 51% | 0% | |
| Canadian Long Aggregate | |||||||||||
| Ticker | Name | MER1 | Duration1 | AAA2 | AA2 | A2 | BBB2 | Federal/ Agencies2 | Provincial/Municipal2 | Corporate2 | |
| VLB | Vanguard Canadian Long-Term Bond Index ETF | 0.17% | 14.8 | 32% | 54% | 8% | 6% | 26% | 64% | 10% | |
| XLB | iShares Core Canadian Long Term Bond Index ETF | 0.18% | 14.4 | 29% | 30% | 33% | 9% | 24% | 54% | 22% | |
| 1. MER and duration data as of February 28, 2017 | |
| 2. Credit quality and issuer breakdowns are approximate and based on the most recent publicly available data from the ETF issuers | |
| 3. Represents management fee only, as an audited MER is not yet available. | |
| 4. ETF offered in both distributing units and accumulating units (L) | |
| Sources: BMO Capital Markets, National Bank Financial, ETF Issuer Websites | |
