A new US bank ETF puts 42% in four megabanks and charges 0.14%

The Portfolio Building Block US Banks ETF, —PBUB, a fund of US banks, began trading on Nasdaq on Friday, September 25, with 42% of its money in four megabanks: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup.

JPMorgan alone is 14.8%. Invesco's fund of US banks, BKBWB, has JPMorgan at 8.1%, with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs among its largest holdings. Neither of those two is in —PBUB.

—PBUB holds 18 banks and a small cash position. State Street's fund that spreads money across US banks, BKBE, holds 107 holdings, and no holding reaches 1%.

Two more funds from the same group began trading that day. The Portfolio Building Block World Consumer Staples ETF, —PBCS, holds large companies that sell everyday goods, and the Portfolio Building Block World Ex US Industrials ETF, —PBWN, holds industrial companies outside the United States. Tidal Investments LLC advises all three. Each holds under $1 million.

Each charges 0.14%. The September 18 summary prospectus, the short document investors see first, lists that as the management fee and the total annual expense. The advisory agreement, as amended on May 12, sets the same rate. The May 19 statutory prospectus, which the summary points back to, does not match itself: the fee table shows 0.14%, and the adviser section says the unitary management fee, a single fee meant to cover the fund's costs, is 0.15%.

The fee is not what a buyer pays to get in. On the issuer's pages, the median 30-day bid-ask spread, the typical gap between the buying and selling price, was 0.17% for —PBUB and 0.29% for —PBCS as of Friday, October 2, and 0.36% for —PBWN as of Thursday, October 1. Average daily trading has been 67 shares in the bank fund, 43 in the staples fund and 44 in the industrials fund.

BKBWB and BKBE each charge 0.35%, a gap of 0.21 percentage points. The bank fund's 0.17% spread is narrower than that gap.

iShares' fund of consumer-staples companies from around the world, BKXI, charges 0.38% in its July 31, 2026 prospectus, 0.24 percentage points above 0.14%. The 0.29% spread on —PBCS is wider than that gap. Vanguard's fund of US staples companies, BVDC, charges 0.09% as of December 19, 2025, less than the new staples fund. Walmart, Costco and Coca-Cola, all US companies, are the largest holdings in —PBCS, and Walmart is 9.9%.

iShares' fund of industrial companies, CEXI, charges 0.38% in that same prospectus. Caterpillar, a US company, is its largest stock. —PBWN leaves the United States out, so the lower fee is not a discount on the same stocks.

The marketing and the prospectus disagree

The —PBCS website says the fund offers exposure "across developed and emerging markets worldwide."

The summary prospectus does not. A company gets into that index only if its shares trade on a major exchange in a developed market. —PBWN contradicts itself on one page: the fund description mentions developed and emerging markets outside the United States, while the index description on that page, and the May 19 statutory prospectus, keep the list to developed markets and leave the United States out.

A buyer who chose either fund for the emerging markets on the webpage does not own them.

Friday's launch is a concentrated bet on four US megabanks, not a substitute for the sector funds already trading.