Vanguard lowers bond ETF fee

Vanguard Australia announced it has reduced the management fee for its Vanguard Australian Government Bond Index Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) to 0.16 per cent per annum.

A 0.4 per cent drop, the bond ETF is the latest in a string of fee reductions for other Vanguard products, including the the Vanguard Australian Fixed Income Index ETF and the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF last year.

“Vanguard is focused on delivering value to investors through lower fees, high quality experience and best-in-class investment management,” Vanguard Australia’s Head of Product Offer, Curt Jacques, said.

“We’ve been pleased to be able to achieve more than 40 fee reductions for our Australian investors in the past decade across our range of products and services.

“This fee change may be good news for investors seeking to move out of cash holdings to capture low cost, durable, resilient yields, with the potential for additional price appreciation as rates eventually decline.

“Following the Reserve Bank of Australia keeping rates on hold last week and removing their tightening bias, our outlook for bonds remains positive and we expect interest rates to ultimately settle at levels above those in recent memory.”