Vanguard Casts Its Lot With the Big Board

Chalk one up for the New York Stock Exchange. Thanks to an imminent merger among exchanges, Vanguard is getting ready to move 34 exchange-traded funds from the American Stock Exchange to the NYSE Arca.

The expected transfer comes on the heels of NYSE Euronext's (NYX) proposed $260 million acquisition of the Amex, which was recently approved by members of the Amex Membership Corporation.

The deal is expected to receive SEC approval later this year, at which time the Vanguard ETFs will begin trading on the NYSE's Arca trading platform. "We're looking forward to listing all Vanguard ETFs on the Arca exchange, which continues to make significant strides in picking up ETF trading market share," said Gus Sauter, Vanguard's chief investment officer. "Arca has a robust electronic platform with an innovative market-making function and a strong commitment to the development of its ETF business."

The merger will extend the reach of NYSE Euronext in the ETF universe. At present, the NYSE Arca has captured about 55% of ETF and ETN assets under management in the U.S. With nearly $590 billion of ETF and ETN assets, it has the most of any exchange.

Vanguard is no stranger to ETFs either. The company launched its first ETF, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) in 2001.

The fund holds blue chips such as Exxon Mobil (XOM), General Electric (GE), Microsoft (MSFT), ChevronTexaco (CVX) and Bank of America (BAC).

Vanguard's most recent launch was the Vanguard Total World Stock Index ETF (VT), which seeks to track the performance of the FTSE All-World Index, a benchmark of about 2,900 stocks in 47 countries.