The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE:SCHW) was a late entrant to the exchange traded funds industry, but that has not stopped the brokerage giant from becoming an ETF giant as well. Today, Schwab is the fifth-largest U.S. ETF sponsor and is considering launching its first new ETF since 2013.
“Charles Schwab Investment Management, the brokerage’s money-managing arm, is seeking approval for a stock ETF that would track a proprietary index of the 1,000 largest U.S. companies, according to regulatory filings,” reports Rachel Evans for Bloomberg.
Schwab has not launched a new ETF since August 2013 when it unveiled its lineup of fundamentally-weighted, or smart beta, ETFs. That group includes popular funds such as the Schwab Fundamental Emerging Markets Large Company ETF (NYSEARCA:FNDE). FNDE is rapidly becoming one of the dominant names among smart beta emerging markets ETFs, an asset class usually dominated by plain vanilla cap-weighted funds.
FNDE tracks the Russell Fundamental Emerging Markets large Company Index, which selects, ranks and weights components based on fundamental factors like adjusted sales, retained operating cash flow and dividends plus buybacks.
Assuming it comes to market, the “Schwab 1000 Index ETF would be the issuer’s first to use an index created in-house, reducing Schwab’s costs and potentially allowing it to charge as little as zero to two basis points in management fees,” reports Bloomberg.
Related: Oppenheimer Adds International ETFs to Revenue-Weighted Lineup
As of July13th, Schwab had $79.3 billion in ETF assets under management, putting it about $30 billion ahead of sixth-place First Trust. Earlier this month, California-based Schwab said one of its ETFs topped $10 billion in assets under management for the first time.
It has almost been eight years since its launch, but the Schwab International Equity ETF (NYSEArca:SCHF) has finally broken into the $10 billion in assets club.
The Schwab international Equity ETF, which launched in November 2009, has now accumulated $10.4 billion in assets under management. It is also the cheapest international ETF on the block with a 0.06% expense ratio.
The Schwab International Equity ETF tries to reflect the performance of the FTSE Developed ex US Index, which is comprised of large and mid-cap stocks of developed countries outside the U.S.
If the Schwab 1000 Index ETF comes to market, it would be the issuer’s 22nd ETF, a comparatively small lineup relative to competitors such as iShares and Vanguard.