SPTU vs VUSB

SPTUAState Street SPDR Portfolio Ultra Short T-Bill ETF

VUSBAVanguard Ultra-Short Bond ETF

In short

SPTU State Street already owns the T-bill aisle with BIL. SPTU is the house undercutting itself: the same firm's bill exposure at 0.05% a year, stretched across the whole one-to-twelve-month curve instead of just the front slice.

VUSB Vanguard's first actively managed bond ETF, run by its in-house fixed income team and priced at 0.10%. It holds investment-grade paper maturing inside two years: a step past a money fund, well short of a real bond fund.

Stated mandate

SPTU The ETF seeks to provide investment results that generally correspond to the price and yield performance of the ICE BofA US Treasury Bill Index. It invests in U.S. Treasury bills with remaining maturities of at least one month and less than twelve months.

VUSB The fund seeks current income with limited price volatility while investing in diversified high- and medium-quality fixed-income securities. It expects to maintain a dollar-weighted average maturity of 0–2 years.

Why people hold it

• SPTU Charges 0.05% a year, roughly a third of the 0.14% on State Street's older, far larger bill fund BIL for a closely related job.ssga.com
• Owns the full bill curve, one month out to twelve, where most cash-parking rivals stop at three months. One ticker instead of a hand-built ladder.ssga.com
• Plain plumbing: a passive index fund holding roughly 50 US Treasury bills. No corporate paper, no derivatives overlay, no yield-chasing detour.
• Its portfolio matches the label it sells: the ICE BofA US Treasury Bill Index, and nothing hiding behind it.

• VUSB At 0.10%, it costs half the typical ultra-short bond ETF and undercuts the other leaders in the group: SHV, PULS, FLDR and DUSB all charge 0.15%.
• Active, not adventurous. The managers buy investment-grade bonds (A3-or-better high quality plus BBB-tier medium quality) and hold average maturity to zero-to-two years.vanguard.com
• Income lands monthly, sourced from roughly 170 bonds, so no single issuer drives the outcome.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, and the same portfolio team also runs a similar Vanguard ultra-short fund.vanguard.com

Worth knowing

• SPTU Launched in October 2025, so the track record is thin and the fund is still building its asset base next to entrenched competitors.
• Thinly traded so far. Spreads can run wider and less predictable than in the category's most heavily traded names.
• Reaching out to twelve-month bills means slightly more price sensitivity to rate moves than 0-3 month funds like VBIL or CLIP, and payouts have not settled into a fixed schedule.

• VUSB This is not a money market fund. No fixed $1 share price, and the market price can trade above or below the value of the holdings.vanguard.com
• The mandate allows BBB-tier credit, a notch of risk a Treasury-only neighbor like SHV doesn't take.vanguard.com
• Bonds this short reprice with short-term rates, so the monthly payout drifts up and down instead of holding a set level.vanguard.com

Full SPTU profile⁠

Full VUSB profile⁠