State Street® SPDR® Bloomberg International Corporate Bond ETF

What this fund is

State Street® SPDR® Bloomberg International Corporate Bond ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from SPDR, traded under the ticker IBND (ISIN US78464A1512). It lets you buy a basket of holdings in a single trade, spreading your money across them rather than one company. In plain terms it is about lending to governments and companies in return for regular interest, which tends to be steadier than shares but grows more slowly, spread broadly across markets worldwide. It follows the Bloomberg Global Aggregate ex-USD >$1B: Corporate Bond Index index (passive investing): it tracks the market rather than relying on a manager, keeping running costs down, and its largest holdings include ANHEUSER BUSCH INBEV SA/ COMPANY GUAR REGS 03/28 2, JPMORGAN CHASE + CO SR UNSECURED REGS 03/30 VAR and AMAZON.COM INC SR UNSECURED 03/39 4.05.

It holds around 951 positions (the ten largest ≈ 2.7%), spreading risk so no single holding decides your outcome. By industry it concentrates most in ~53.4% Financials and ~10.6% Communication Services. Funds like this are often used as the steadier, lower-swing part of a portfolio — the ballast that cushions the ups and downs of shares. Its ongoing charge (TER) is 0.5% a year — about €50 a year on a €10,000 holding, taken automatically from the fund.

It holds the underlying investments directly (physical replication); it is domiciled in the United States and trades in USD. Its price has swung about 8.1% over the past year — a gauge of how much the value moves, not a judgement of quality. It launched in 2010. As with any investment, its value can go down as well as up, and past performance is not a guide to future results. (Fund data sourced from SPDR.)