Industry Updates

UBS AM slashes fees across hundreds of ETFs after challenging 2023

It now offers Europe’s lowest MSCI world ETF fee

Lauren Gibbons

UBS bank

UBS Asset Management has slashed the fees of over 200 ETFs, including its MSCI world, S&P 500 and emerging markets products, following a year of outflows for the asset manager in 2023.

The Swiss asset manager now offers the cheapest MSCI global ETF in Europe after cutting the fee on the £952m UBS ETF MSCI World UCITS ETF (UC55) by two-thirds to 0.10%, ahead of the Xtrackers MSCI World UCITS ETF (XDWL) which has a 0.12% fee.

In a bid to stay competitive amid rife market competition, UBS AM also cut its UBS ETF S&P 500 UCITS ETF (S5SD) fee by three basis points to 0.09%.

UBS AM remains behind State Street Global Advisors which slashed the fee on its SPDR S&P 500 UCITS ETF (SPY5) to 0.03%, creating the cheapest S&P 500 ETF in Europe.

After the cut, S5SD is the joint sixth-cheapest S&P 500 UCITS ETF, matching the fee of the HSBC S&P 500 UCITS ETF (HSPX).

UBS AM has also reduced the total expense ratios (TERs) on its emerging market ETF, the UBS ETF MSCI Emerging Markets UCITS ETF (UB32), from 0.23% to 0.18% while its Irish-domiciled counterpart now charges 0.14%.

The asset manager's broad sweep of fee reductions comes after it suffered $715m outflows, the lowest across the eight-largest ETF issuers in Europe, according to data from ETFbook.

Furthermore, UBS AM added the bank’s acquisition of Credit Suisse last March has enabled economies of scale.

Clemens Reuter, head of ETF and index fund client coverage at UBS AM, said: “We are able to reduce the cost of ownership across a wide range of our ETFs while maintaining our commitment to the highest quality.”

Across its fixed income range, UBS AM cut the fee on the UBS ETF Bloomberg US Treasury 7-10 UCITS ETF (UB82) from 0.12% to 0.07%.

Of its corporate bonds offerings, the UBS ETF Bloomberg US Liquid Corporates UCITS ETF (UC84) saw a reduction of five basis points to 0.13%.

Elsewhere, the UBS ETF MSCI Europe UCITS ETF (UB12) was slashed by half to 0.10% and the UBS ETF MSCI United Kingdom hedged CHF UCITS ETF (UKCHBH SW) was reduced from 0.30% to 0.23%.

UBS AM also reduced the fee on the UBS ETF MSCI Japan UCITS ETF (UB02) to 0.12%, now matching Blackrock, SSGA and DWS’s Japan ETFs.

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