EWN vs FLGB

EWNBiShares MSCI Netherlands ETF

FLGBAFranklin FTSE United Kingdom ETF

In short

EWN One ticker for the Amsterdam market: roughly 60 Dutch stocks, large-cap down to small, with capping rules that keep any single giant from swallowing the fund. Running since 1996.

FLGB Britain in one ticker for nine basis points. Franklin's UK tracker follows a capped FTSE index of roughly 110 British companies and charges a small fraction of what the typical index fund in its peer group costs.

Stated mandate

EWN The fund seeks to track a broad-based index of Dutch equities.

FLGB The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the performance of the FTSE UK RIC Capped Index.

Why people hold it

• EWN Full-market reach: the index spans large, mid and small caps traded mainly on the Amsterdam exchange, not just the blue-chip handful.sec.gov
• Built-in guardrail: no single issuer may exceed 25% of the index, and issuers above 5% cannot top 50% combined.sec.gov
• Trading since 1996, an ETF-industry original, and it still does one plain job: Dutch equities, no hedges, no tilts.
• Sits in the upper half of the developed single-country group: mainstream MSCI index, a mid-sized asset base and steady volume.

• FLGB 0.09% a year, a fraction of the median fee across the index trackers we grade. Cheap is the whole pitch for single-country beta, and this one delivers it.
• One trade, roughly 110 UK companies. A passive, rules-based mandate tied to the FTSE UK RIC Capped Index, running since its 2017 launch.
• Stands in the top quartile of its plain-index-wrapper peer group, and the mandate data behind that read is high confidence.

Worth knowing

• EWN The 0.50% fee matches the typical developed single-country fund, though cohort peers like FLKR and FLAU run 0.09%.
• One country, about 60 names, and a cap that still allows one issuer near a quarter of the fund. Concentrated by design.sec.gov
• Cash comes annually or semiannually rather than monthly, and returns ride the euro since the holdings trade in Amsterdam.sec.gov

• FLGB Single-country by design: UK listings only, so there is no cushion from other markets inside the fund. Broad global trackers like VT spread that bet differently.
• Moderately traded rather than a volume monster, so limit orders are the sane way in and out.
• Distributions arrive once or twice a year, not monthly. Income lands in lumps.

Full EWN profile⁠

Full FLGB profile⁠