SPBO vs VCEB

SPBOAState Street SPDR Portfolio Corporate Bond ETF

VCEBAVanguard ESG U.S. Corporate Bond ETF

In short

SPBO The whole investment-grade corporate bond market in one ticker for three basis points. Most rivals sell you a maturity slice; SPBO owns the lot, and it undercuts other funds tracking the very same Bloomberg index.

VCEB Vanguard took its plain-vanilla corporate bond playbook and ran it through an ESG screen. Investment-grade U.S. company debt, roughly 300 bonds, monthly income, 0.12% a year: cheap even by unscreened standards, and rare in a thin niche.

Stated mandate

SPBO The fund seeks investment results that generally correspond, before fees and expenses, to the price and yield performance of the Bloomberg U.S. Corporate Bond Index.

VCEB The fund seeks to track the Bloomberg MSCI U.S. Corporate SRI Select Index. Its mandate covers U.S. dollar-denominated, investment-grade, fixed-rate, taxable corporate bonds with maturities exceeding one year and ESG screening.

Why people hold it

• SPBO 0.03% a year against a category median of 0.19%. In bond land, where the yield does the heavy lifting, that fee gap is not a rounding error.
• Thousands of corporate bonds across the full maturity range, so you hold the broad IG corporate market instead of one duration bucket.ssga.com
• Same index, very different tolls: KORP charges 0.29%, JLQD 0.35%, JHCB 0.53%. SPBO sits at the cheap end of that list.
• Running since 2011, pays monthly, and tracks its benchmark about as closely as anything in the investment-grade corporate group.

• VCEB Costs 0.12% a year versus a 0.19% median for investment-grade corporate bond funds. Cheap for a screened portfolio, not just cheap for a screened one.
• Roughly 300 U.S. dollar-denominated, fixed-rate investment-grade corporates with maturities beyond a year, and income lands monthly.
• The portfolio does what the prospectus says it does, tracking the Bloomberg MSCI U.S. Corporate SRI Select Index. One of the stronger implementations in its peer group.vanguard.com
• Vanguard-run and already a fund with billions in assets, real staying power for a screened bond product that only launched in 2020.

Worth knowing

• SPBO Full maturity range means long-dated paper is in the mix, so the price moves more when rates move than short-maturity peers like IGSB or SPIB.
• Corporate credit only. No Treasuries or mortgages to lean on, so the fund rides the health of corporate borrowers as well as the rate cycle.ssga.com
• Investment grade by design, US issuers only. No high-yield or emerging-market bonds in the basket.

• VCEB The SRI screen drops issuers a broad corporate index holds, so sector and issuer mix can drift from the unscreened market.vanguard.com
• Vanguard's unscreened corporate bond funds cost less: VCIT charges 0.03%. The screen is what the extra buys.
• Bonds run well past one year to maturity, so prices move with rates. Trading is moderate, and spreads can run wider than the category's busiest names.

Full SPBO profile⁠

Full VCEB profile⁠