BKEM vs KEMX

BKEMABNY Mellon Emerging Markets Equity ETF

KEMXBKraneShares MSCI Emerging Markets ex China Index 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.

KEMX KraneShares made its name on China funds. This is the one that leaves China out: roughly 300 large and mid cap stocks from the rest of the emerging world, at 0.24% net of a waiver through August 1, 2028.

Stated mandate

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

KEMX The Fund seeks to track the price and yield performance of the MSCI Emerging Markets ex China Index. It normally invests at least 80% of assets in securities or instruments corresponding to that index.

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.

• KEMX 0.24% a year, net of a waiver running through August 1, 2028, which lands below the category median. The gross fee underneath is 0.59%.
• Plain index replication: at least 80% of assets in MSCI Emerging Markets ex China Index securities, and it has tracked that benchmark tightly.
• The index reaches about 85% of free-float market cap in each country it covers, so dropping China still leaves broad reach across Taiwan, Korea, India and the rest.msci.commsci.com 2
• Listed since 2019 and sitting in the upper half of its emerging markets peer group in our review.sec.gov

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.

• KEMX Thinly traded next to the category's giants, so bid-ask spreads can be wider and big orders can move the price.
• The 0.24% is a waived rate; if it lapses after August 1, 2028, the gross fee is 0.59%. Cheaper unwaived options sit in the group, including VEXC at 0.07% and XCEM at 0.16%.
• Zero China exposure, by design. That makes it a different animal from a standard emerging markets fund, not a tweak at the margin.

Full BKEM profile⁠

Full KEMX profile⁠