Vanguard announced Tuesday morning that it plans to change the tracking indices for many of its index funds and ETFs. The Valley Forge, Penn.-based firm said the move will affect 22 index funds, including ETFs.
The asset manager said it plans to transition six international stock index funds to FTSE benchmarks and 16 U.S. stock and balanced index funds to new benchmarks developed by the University of Chicago’s Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP). The shift is “expected to result in considerable savings for the funds’ shareholders,” Vanguard said.
Vanguard’s ETFs are structured as separate share classes of its index funds.
ETFs affected by the move include Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets (NYSEArca: VWO), Vanguard Total Stock Market (NYSEArca: VTI) and Vanguard Small Cap (NYSEArca: VB).
The change to Vanguard’s emerging market ETF’s benchmark is notable because the fund competes with iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (NYSEArca: EEM). The funds had tracked the same MSCI index, but Vanguard is moving to a FTSE benchmark. The Vanguard emerging market fund, VWO, is the best-selling ETF in 2012 with inflows of $11.5 billion, according to Index Universe data. EEM has gathered $1.6 billion.