This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below.

* The fund’s Investment Advisory and Service Agreement provides that the investment adviser will pay all operating expenses of the fund, except for the management fees, interest expenses, taxes, acquired fund fees and expenses, costs of holding shareholder meetings, legal fees and expenses relating to arbitration or litigation, payments under the fund’s 12b-1 plan (if any) and other non-routine or extraordinary expenses. Additionally, the fund will be responsible for its non-operating expenses, including brokerage commissions and fees and expenses associated with the fund’s securities lending program, if any.

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the fund with the cost of investing in other funds.

The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the fund’s operating expenses remain the same. No fees are charged by the fund upon the sale of fund shares, so you would incur these hypothetical costs whether or not you were to sell your shares at the end of the given period.

The fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the fund’s investment results. During the most recent fiscal year, the fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 52% of the average value of its portfolio.

The fund normally invests at least 80% of its assets in the United States. The fund invests primarily in bonds and other debt instruments, which may be represented by derivatives. In seeking to achieve a high level of current income, the fund invests in a broad range of debt securities across the credit spectrum. Normally, the fund will invest its assets across three primary sectors: high-yield corporate debt, investment grade corporate debt and securitized debt. The proportion of securities held by the fund within each of these credit sectors will vary with market conditions and the investment adviser’s assessment of their relative attractiveness as investment opportunities. The fund may opportunistically invest in other sectors including, but not limited to, U.S. government debt, municipal debt and non-corporate credit, in response to market conditions. The fund may invest in debt securities of any maturity or duration.

The fund may invest substantially in securities rated Ba1 or below and BB+ or below by Nationally Recognized Statistical Ratings Organizations designated by the fund’s investment adviser, or in securities that are unrated but determined to be of equivalent quality by the fund’s investment adviser. Such securities, sometimes referred to as “junk bonds," may be in the high-yield corporate debt sector or the securitized debt sector or any sector in which the fund may invest opportunistically. The fund may also invest up to 20% of its assets tied economically to countries outside the United States.

The fund may invest in futures contracts and swaps, which are types of derivatives. A derivative is a financial contract, the value of which is based on the value of an underlying financial asset (such as a stock, bond or currency), a reference rate or a market index.

The fund’s assets are managed by a team of portfolio managers. Under this approach, the fund’s managers work together to oversee the fund’s entire portfolio. For more information regarding the investment process of the fund, see the “Management and organization” section of this prospectus.

The fund relies on the professional judgment of its investment adviser to make decisions about the fund’s portfolio investments. The basic investment philosophy of the investment adviser is to seek to invest in attractively priced securities that, in its opinion, represent good investment opportunities. Securities may be sold when the investment adviser believes that they no longer represent relatively attractive investment opportunities.

The following bar chart shows how the fund’s investment results have varied from year to year, and the following table shows how the fund’s average annual total returns for various periods compare with a broad measure of securities market results and, if applicable, other measures of market results that reflect the fund’s investment universe. This information provides some indication of the risks of investing in the fund. Past investment results (before and after taxes) are not predictive of future investment results. Updated information on the fund’s investment results can be obtained by visiting capitalgroup.com/etf.