KCSH vs VBIL

KCSHBKraneShares Sustainable Ultra Short Duration Index ETF​

VBILAVanguard 0-3 Month Treasury Bill ETF

In short

KCSH Most of this aisle is a Treasury-bill parking lot. KCSH is the climate-screened one: sub-one-year investment-grade corporate bonds filtered by ISS climate analysis for Paris Agreement alignment, with income paid monthly.

VBIL Vanguard's cash-parking ETF: roughly two dozen Treasury bills, none maturing more than three months out, at 0.06% a year. It landed in 2025 and undercut most of the T-bill shelf on price.

Stated mandate

KCSH Seeks investment results that generally correspond to the price and yield performance of the Solactive ISS Sustainable Select 0-1 Year USD Corporate IG Index. The index covers U.S.-dollar investment-grade corporate debt maturing within one year and aligned with the Paris Agreement.

VBIL VBIL seeks to track the performance of a market-weighted Treasury index with an ultra-short-term dollar-weighted average maturity, using a passive approach designed to follow the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Bills 0-3 Months Index.

Why people hold it

• KCSH The differentiator is the screen: ISS climate analysis, Paris 1.5C-by-2050 alignment and fossil fuel exclusions, applied to ultra-short corporate credit.kraneshares.com
• The index targets credit and rate risk similar to mainstream ultra-short investment-grade benchmarks, so the screen reshapes the issuer list more than the risk profile.kraneshares.com
• Roughly 160 short-dated corporate bonds, held physically inside a 1940 Act fund, with distributions monthly rather than quarterly.kraneshares.com
• Fee sits near the category median at 0.20% net of a waiver through August 1, 2028, a long runway for a screened product in a price-war category.

• VBIL It charges 0.06% a year, well under the 0.14% median for 0-1 year Treasury funds and under the category veteran, BIL.
• Plain passive mandate on the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Bills 0-3 Months Index, tracked very closely. One of the tightest implementations in its peer group.vanguard.com
• Roughly two dozen bills backed by the US Treasury, every one maturing inside three months. Interest goes out monthly.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund with active daily trading, which tends to keep bid-ask costs small.

Worth knowing

• KCSH Bill funds are cheaper: VBIL 0.06%, CLIP 0.07%, ICSH 0.08%, no waivers. KCSH is 0.20% net of a waiver through August 1, 2028, and 0.30% gross if it lapses.
• This is corporate credit, not government paper. Investment-grade and under a year to maturity, but default and spread risk exist where a Treasury bill fund has effectively none.kraneshares.com
• Small and lightly traded next to the category's giants, and live only since 2024: spreads can be wider and the track record is short.

• VBIL The payout floats with short-term rates. Monthly income rises and falls with what bills yield, and nothing about it is fixed.
• It opened in 2025, so its live record is short next to T-bill funds that have been running for years.
• Stretching maturity gets cheaper: peer XONE targets one-year duration at 0.03%, trading lower cost for more rate sensitivity.

Full KCSH profile⁠

Full VBIL profile⁠