MBB vs VETZ

MBBAiShares MBS ETF

VETZCAcademy Veteran Impact ETF

In short

MBB Launched in 2007, MBB is the plain-vanilla way to own U.S. agency mortgage bonds: one of the biggest and busiest funds in a small niche, tracking the Bloomberg U.S. MBS Index for four basis points.

VETZ Most mortgage-bond ETFs are pure plumbing. VETZ makes the borrower the point: a US fixed-income portfolio built around lending to active-duty service members and veterans, with income paid out monthly.

Stated mandate

MBB The fund seeks to track an index composed of U.S. agency mortgage-backed securities.

VETZ The Fund seeks current income while pursuing a positive impact for active duty service members and veterans, including through veteran loans.

Why people hold it

• MBB Four basis points to rent the entire agency mortgage market, against a category median near 0.35%. In low-coupon bond land, that gap compounds quietly.
• Scale is the real feature: one of the largest and most actively traded funds in the mortgage-bond category, which generally shows up as tighter spreads.
• Pays monthly, and the mandate stays narrow: an index of U.S. agency mortgage-backed securities, nothing exotic bolted on.
• Among the stronger builds in a thin peer group of mortgage-bond ETFs, on the combination of cost, trading friction and issuer staying power.

• VETZ The mandate is the whole differentiator: the stated objective is current income while pursuing a positive impact for active-duty service members and veterans, including through veteran loans.
• Ordinary machinery under an unusual theme: US bonds, roughly 160 positions, cash distributed monthly.
• The 0.35% expense ratio lands at the median for mortgage-bond ETFs, so the veteran-loan angle is not priced as a specialty add-on.

Worth knowing

• MBB This is one slice of the bond market. Agency mortgage paper only, with no Treasuries or corporates alongside it.
• Mortgage bonds cut both ways with rates: borrowers refinance when yields fall and sit tight when they rise, so the portfolio's duration shifts underneath you.
• On price it's a photo finish: SPMB tracks the same index at the same 0.04%, and VMBS runs a basis point cheaper.

• VETZ Index rivals set a cheap bar: VMBS charges 0.03% and MBB 0.04%. The gap is what the impact mandate and active security selection cost here.
• Small and thinly traded, so spreads can run wider than the category's giants and larger orders may need patience.
• Launched in 2023, it sits in the lower half of its mortgage-bond peer group on our read, and it is still a bond fund: values move with rates and prepayments.

Full MBB profile⁠

Full VETZ profile⁠