BKLN vs SCYB

BKLNCInvesco Senior Loan ETF

SCYBASchwab High Yield Bond ETF

In short

BKLN The original senior loan ETF, trading since 2011. It owns the 100 largest, most liquid leveraged loans: floating rate, senior secured, below investment grade. Credit risk in place of interest rate risk.

SCYB Three basis points for the broad US high-yield corporate market. Schwab undercuts a category where the typical fund charges more than ten times as much, spreading the bet across roughly 1,800 bonds and paying monthly.

Stated mandate

BKLN The fund provides exposure to the largest and most liquid senior secured loans by tracking the Morningstar LSTA US Leveraged Loan 100 Index.

SCYB The fund follows a rules-based strategy intended to track the high-yield bond market, primarily through bonds in the Bloomberg Barclays US Corporate High Yield Total Return Index and similar derivatives.

Why people hold it

• BKLN Coupons float off short-term rates and reset, so income follows rates up or down instead of fighting them. Duration is minimal, unlike a fixed-coupon bond fund.invesco.com
• Senior secured loans sit at the top of a borrower's capital stack, ahead of bonds and equity, backed by collateral (which may not always be enough to cover the loan).invesco.com
• The index screens for the 100 largest, most liquid loan facilities, so the portfolio (about 170 positions) stays in paper that actually trades.invesco.com
• A multi-billion-dollar fund and one of the most actively traded doors into the loan market, a corner investors usually reach through slower mutual fund wrappers.invesco.com

• SCYB 0.03% a year against a category median of 0.40%. Even the cheap rivals sit above it: SPHY at 0.05%, USHY at 0.08%.
• Tracks the same Bloomberg US Corporate High Yield index as BKHY, which charges 0.22%. Same map, cheaper toll.
• Roughly 1,800 bonds, so no single issuer's blowup drives the outcome. Rules-based and passive, and it has hugged its index closely.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively and pays monthly, which matters in a corner of the market where getting out cheaply is half the job.

Worth knowing

• BKLN 0.65% net of a waiver through August 31, 2027 (0.67% gross) sits above the category median and well above plain high-yield bond ETFs like SCYB at 0.03% or SPHY at 0.05%.
• Leveraged loans are below investment grade by design and settle slower than bonds, so a fund trading them daily carries real credit and liquidity risk.saytechnologies.cominvesco.com
• Floating coupons cut both ways: the monthly payout moves with short-term rates and credit conditions, so there is no fixed income level to plan around.invesco.com

• SCYB High yield means below-investment-grade credit. These bonds behave more like stocks than Treasuries when the economy sours, and the extra income is the payment for that risk.
• Launched in 2023, so it has a shorter record than rivals that have traded through more credit cycles.
• The strategy can hold derivatives alongside the bonds themselves to track the index, one layer beyond plain bond ownership.

Full BKLN profile⁠

Full SCYB profile⁠