Fidelity's next trick: a muni bond fund-to-ETF flip

Fidelity Investments is looking to convert two of its municipal-bond mutual funds into exchange-traded funds, a move that underscores the popularity of the $10 trillion US arena. 

The two funds impacted are the $170 million Fidelity Municipal Bond Index Fund and the Fidelity Municipal Core Plus Bond Fund, which has less than $70 million in assets. Both are expected to be converted next year, according to two separate regulatory filings. 

“These conversions can deliver new opportunities and value for our existing shareholders, while also expanding our solutions to help meet demand for access to innovative strategies in an ETF wrapper,” said Greg Friedman, Fidelity’s head of ETF management and strategy, in an emailed statement.

The Boston-based asset manager isn’t new to this trend. In June 2023, Fidelity announced that it would turn six of its mutual funds into ETFs, after revealing plans of a first wave of conversions the prior year. 

Such conversions became popular a few years ago after Dimensional Fund Advisors, JPMorgan and Neuberger Berman flipped their funds. Now, it’s starting to become more common in the muni market as well. BlackRock Inc. is planning to convert its BlackRock High Yield Municipal Fund into an ETF, according to a recent filing.

With investors flocking to low-cost products, muni ETFs have grown to a $135 billion arena. There are now more than 100 such ETFs tracked by Bloomberg. 

Still, the pace of inflows into muni ETFs has slowed. The funds have raked in more than $10 billion so far in 2024. That’s compared to about $15 billion in 2023 and a peak of $29 billion in 2022, according to Bloomberg Intelligence data.