In May, State Street lowered fees on two SPDR funds, and in October 2016 it both refurbished and significantly cut the fees on 15 SPDR ETFs.
While State Street remains the third-largest U.S. ETF provider with assets under management of more than $590 billion, according to XTF.com, the gap between it and the top two players, BlackRock’s iShares unit and Vanguard, at more than $1.4 trillion and $929 billion, respectively, has widened in recent years as investors have gravitated toward those two providers’ low-cost funds. That includes financial advisors, who desire low-cost ETFs in fee-based accounts.