BKEM vs ILF

BKEMABNY Mellon Emerging Markets Equity ETF

ILFBiShares Latin America 40 ETF

In short

BKEM The whole emerging world, priced like an afterthought. BNY Mellon charges 0.11% to hold well over a thousand large- and mid-cap stocks across developing markets. Broad, cheap, and very quiet.

ILF One of the original ways to own Latin America in a single ticker. Since 2001, ILF has held about 40 of the region's largest listed companies: a concentrated regional slice, not a broad international fund.

Stated mandate

BKEM The fund is designed to follow the performance of an emerging-markets large- and mid-cap equity index.

ILF The fund seeks to track an index consisting of 40 of the largest Latin American equities.

Why people hold it

• BKEM 0.11% a year puts it near the bottom of the emerging-markets fee shelf, well under what the typical fund in the category charges.
• Roughly 1,800 holdings, so you own the mid-cap tail of emerging markets, not just the handful of mega-caps that dominate the better-known indexes.
• Buys the full emerging-markets basket rather than carving out China the way top-rated peers XCEM and VEXC do. One allocation decision you do not have to make.
• Plain indexing, run the same way since the 2020 launch: it hews closely to its Solactive benchmark instead of drifting off-mandate.

• ILF Launched in 2001, making it one of the longest-running single-ticker routes into Latin American equities, across multiple regional booms and busts.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, so getting in and out is rarely the hard part.
• Simple, rules-based mandate: an index of 40 of the largest Latin American equities. What the label says is what sits in the basket.ishares.com
• Income from those large caps is passed through on a quarterly schedule.

Worth knowing

• BKEM Thinly traded. Spreads can widen, so order size and timing matter more here than with the category's household names.
• A small fund next to the emerging-markets giants, which is worth knowing if scale and deep secondary-market liquidity are on your checklist.
• Emerging-markets equity carries currency and single-country political swings; 1,800 names spread that around but do not erase it. Distributions come quarterly.

• ILF At 0.47% a year it costs more than the typical broad international fund (cohort median 0.35%) and well above index giants like VXUS at 0.05%.
• About 40 stocks across a handful of Latin American markets. Concentration cuts both ways, and one country's politics can drive most of the ride.
• The stocks trade in local currencies while the fund is priced in dollars, so exchange rates add a second layer of movement on top of the shares.ishares.com

Full BKEM profile⁠

Full ILF profile⁠