NHYB vs SCYB

NHYBANuveen High Yield Corporate Bond

SCYBASchwab High Yield Bond ETF

In short

NHYB ESG-screened high yield priced like the plain stuff: 0.08% a year, well over a thousand bonds, and the same Bloomberg MSCI index Nuveen's older, pricier ETF follows.

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

NHYB The fund seeks to track the Bloomberg MSCI U.S. High Yield Very Liquid ESG Select Index before fees and expenses. Its strategy uses representative sampling and normally invests at least 80% of assets in index components.

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

• NHYB Costs 0.08% a year, level with the cheapest broad high-yield ETFs (USHY) and a small fraction of what the typical fund in this cohort charges.
• Nuveen's older ETF on the identical index (NUHY) charges 0.30%. Same benchmark, same rulebook, a fraction of the fee.
• Holds well over a thousand bonds through representative sampling, so a single issuer's trouble is a rounding error, not a headline.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that has hugged its index closely, and one of the stronger implementations in a crowded high-yield group.

• 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

• NHYB Launched in September 2025, so the live record is short and has not yet been through a full credit cycle.
• This is below-investment-grade debt: prices can fall hard when credit spreads widen, and defaults come with the territory.
• The ESG screen leaves out issuers the broad high-yield market owns, so results can drift from unscreened peers in either direction.

• 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 NHYB profile⁠

Full SCYB profile⁠