How I see this is -: Vanguard needed to launch something with cheaper TER% to avoid market share loss to Amundi etc. More than 8 billion is sitting in a fund from Amundi which was launched 2 years back.
When you launch a new product at same cost as lowest cost incumbent (WEBG) then you need to offer something extra to create a bit more interest. And that’s where the „all caps including small caps“ comes in.
80-100 CHF for 100K CHF portfolio on annual basis.
And giving fancy ice cream on busy location 
.
I’ve asked IBKR support whether they also plan to list VALL via SIX. I’m now waiting for their response and further information.
To be fair it’s not a bad strategy. AFAICT the only competition on that market is SPYI (0.17% TER on ACWI IMI).
They’re likely to become the primary ticker for this category (same way SPY, QQQ and VT are in the US for their respective index) and with a TER that’s low enough from the start that people are unlikely to ever bother changing provider. This could become a pretty nice moat.
The main potential reason not to use for people who want UCITS would be if somehow a swap based fund ends up beating the return, which to me still isn’t clear whether that would be the case.
edit: btw for those who missed it yesterday apparently was also today 
Will you be passing through Europaallee, next to Zurich HB, this week? The Swiss Sales Team will be here until Thursday afternoon with our "Invest. Relax." campaign. 💧 Free water in the morning 🍦… | Vanguard Switzerland
Where is that IBKR ice cream cart? Lemme walk by the Gubelstrasse tomorrow.
You pay less (TER) for a bit lower returns (Small Cap) - which sounds about fair, doesn’t it?
Where does your assumption in small cap = lower return come from?
Historically it has even been the opposite. And all else being equal, the more diversified approach should yield the better result.
I agree. Vanguard has a good MOAT already and this will strengthen their position.
The only factor which Amundi etc can play with is being European provider.
In the end current US administration has made people more nationalistic for obvious reasons.
It’s another one of those examples where European players have let US players dominate the market (big tech, payments, ETF investments) for long time. But who knows what lies in future
Exactly. Even if the SC premium is exactly 0, you get a genuine diversification of the top holdings by 10%.
Historical data is somewhat meaningless, when it hasn’t for you and me.
I mean… have Small Caps overperformed over your personal investing career?
Debatable, once you’ve achieved sufficient diversification.
Have equal-weight indices (or funds) outperformed market-weight ones?
Wouldn’t really describe that as “moat”, to be honest. I mean, Vanguard has their brigade of evangelists on personal finance-related internet forums in their favour.
That said, they’d gladly jump ship once someone’s offering a more efficient, less expensive fund. Well, as long as they don’t get caught by capital gains taxes.
Vanguard’s VWRA reports their virtual dividend at the end of May. Other funds like FWRA end of December.
Sooo… switching to Vanguard in the second half of the year would avoid having to pay income taxes on dividends. 
In the making, stay tuned
Well for many, the investment career could even be less than 5 years.
I don’t think it is wise to focus on such a small timeframe or even the last 15 years that small cap stocks have underperformed.
Unless you mean that people myopically choose the last winners anyway and Vanguard is taking advantage of this behavior.
We’re a minority here who analyse stuff and think about it, some less rationally than others, but nonetheless have some self-doubt, critical thinking etc
There are many, many people around the world who say (and do) “I just get NVDA and PLTR man, what else, olol”, and the annoying thing is they are, via their ignorance of the basics, as well as ignorant bravery/short-termism/FOMO, often more successful in the short term than the archetypical Boglehead.
For one year yes.
If someone consistently does it , they might get a notice
You mean a Mustachian Award from the tax office?
With a bill
It’s still not known when the ex-date of the new Vanguard UCITS ETF will be, right?
I find it always quite random when these dates are. Even two ETFs from the same provider will have different ones.
When you don’t know it, the unfortunate thing is to invest in an ETF just before the ex-date from ICtax (e.g., only a yearly exdate 30 Sep and you invest mid september). Then you pay taxes on dividends from a whole year even if you just had the ETF for some days.
And even worse is to sell an ETF just after the ex date to buy a new one which will have the ex date in a few weeks… then you pay taxes on dividends twice that year. Even if it’s just a theoretical date because both ETFs are cumulative. It happened to me once, I just realised when I did the tax declaration one year later 
Doesn’t it match the annual report dates?
Also, some fund providers publish the dividend amount to ICTax very late. I believe Xtrackers publish values for dividends from 31.12. around July, so you need to wait until then to do your taxes.