Vanguard Plans Four Bond Index Funds

Fixed-income exchange-traded funds are all the rage.

Vanguard said Wednesday it has filed plans with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer exchange-traded shares for four of its existing bond mutual funds: the (VBMFX Quote)Total Bond Market Index Fund, (VBISX Quote)Short-Term Bond Index Fund, (VBIIX Quote) Intermediate-Term Bond Index Fund and (VBLTX Quote)Long-Term Bond Index Fund. The ETF share classes of each fund will carry an expense ratio of 0.11%.

The announcement comes as Barclays Global Investors launched eight fixed-income ETFs last week, ending a three-year drought for these kinds of products. Barclays, a unit of Barclays Bank(BCS Quote), is the biggest player in the U.S. ETF market with more than half of all assets under management and is currently the only firm that offers bond ETFs here. It now has 14. ...