Vanguard Planning More Bond Index Funds
August 14, 2009

SAN DIEGO (ETFguide.com) - Vanguard has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for seven new bond index funds and ETFs. The new offerings will bring the total number of Vanguard Bond Index Funds to 12.

The funds will offer ETF Shares and Signal Shares with expected expense ratios of 0.15%, and Institutional Shares with an expense ratio of 0.09%.

The funds are expected to be available for purchase in late 2009.

The planned funds are:

--Vanguard Short-Term Government Bond Index Fund
--Vanguard Intermediate Government Bond Index Fund
--Vanguard Long-Term Government Bond Index Fund
--Vanguard Short-Term Corporate Bond Index Fund
--Vanguard Intermediate Corporate Bond Index Fund
--Vanguard Long-Term Corporate Bond Index Fund
--Vanguard Mortgage-Backed Securities Index Fund

All of the funds will be benchmarked to bond indexes from Barclays Capital. 

“Vanguard has a quarter-century of experience in bond index management, and expanding our range of funds is a logical extension of our capabilities,” said Bill McNabb, Vanguard president and CEO. “Financial advisors and institutions want to construct broadly diversified fixed income portfolios, while retaining the ability to emphasize particular sectors or durations. Working in concert, our broad-based bond index funds and these new, more targeted funds can help to achieve this goal.”

The move is expected to complement the Valley Forge, PA-based firm’s actively managed fixed income funds, as well as its five existing bond index funds and ETFs.

In 1986, Vanguard introduced the industry’s first no-load bond index fund, the Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund (Nasdaq: VBMFX). Today, VBMFX has $59.5 billion in total assets, and the Total Bond Market ETF (NYSEArca: BND) is among the industry’s top-15 best-selling ETFs.

While Vanguard’s ETFs have no minimum investment requirements, the company’s Signal Shares minimum investment for Vanguard Financial Advisor Services clients is $5 million per fund in aggregate at the firm level and $1 million per plan for employee benefit assets. Institutional shares are available to companies and organizations with account balances of $5 million or more.

Over the past 18 months, stock and bond indexing has gained market share as investors recognize the potential benefits of the approach’s low costs and broad diversification. So far this year, Vanguard has garnered more than $70 billion of net new cash flow to long-term funds through July 2009.