Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCHW), one of the largest discount brokers in the U.S., announced Thursday that is made significant additions to its Schwab ETF OneSource commission-free exchange traded funds platform.
California-based Schwab said it has added over 60 ETFs from various issuers to Schwab ETF OneSource, bringing the number of commission-free offerings on the platform to 182. The news further cements Schwab ETF OneSource as one of the deepest and largest platforms in the commission-free ETF arena. [Schwab Unveils Huge Commission-Free ETF Program]
New providers joining OneSource are ALPS, Direxion Investments, Global X Funds, IndexIQ, PIMCO, ProShares and WisdomTree (NasdaqGS: WETF). Those firms join OneSource’s original members State Street (NYSE: STT), Guggenheim, Invesco’s (NYSE: IVZ) PowerShares, ETF Securities, U.S. Commodity Funds and Schwab’s own lineup of ETFs.
Overall, Schwab added 65 ETFs to the OneSource lineup with 28 coming from new member firms and 37 coming from the original OneSource members. Investors can view the full list of commission-free ETFs featured on OneSource here.
Prior to Thursday, the most recent addition to OneSource came in October 2013 when Schwab added 16 commission-free ETFs to the lineup. [Schwab Bolsters Commission-Free Roster]
““We know that every dollar counts for investors – and trading commissions can really add up, so they are crucial when evaluating the total cost of an ETF,” said Heather Fischer, Vice President of ETF Platform Management at Charles Schwab, in a statement. “Our clients are thrilled that Schwab ETF OneSource has made ETF investing more affordable and accessible, and today’s announcement means the program with the most commission-free ETFs just took another major step forward on their behalf.”
Data indicate investors have embraced idea of trading ETFs sans commissions in a big way. According to a recent Schwab study, “85 percent of investors believe that the ability to trade ETFs without commissions is important. When it comes to evaluating commission-free ETF offerings, choice is paramount. Sixty-nine percent of investors say that having the right selection of ETFs matters most, and 59 percent say that having ETFs that span the broadest number of asset categories is important,” said the firm.
As of the end of August, OneSource had $31 billion in assets under management with year-to-date inflows of $5.9 billion. That $5.9 billion represents 45% of total 2014 ETF inflows to assets custodied at Schwab, according to the company.
New ETFs added to the OneSource lineup include the WisdomTree U.S. Dividend Growth Fund (NasdaqGM: DGRW), WisdomTree U.S SmallCap Dividend Growth Fund (NasdaqGM: DGRS), Direxion S&P 500 RC Volatility Response Shares (NYSEArca: VSPY) and the ProShares S&P 500 Aristocrats ETF (NYSEArca: NOBL).
Todd Shriber owns shares of DGRW.