Investment Strategy - Schwab International Bond ETF |
Mar. 20, 2026 |
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| Prospectus [Line Items] | |
| Strategy [Heading] | Principal Investment Strategies |
| Strategy Narrative [Text Block] |
To pursue its goal, the fund in normal circumstances primarily invests in securities that are included in the ICE Global Broad Market Excluding-USD RIC Capped Free-Float Index (USD Hedged)†. ICE Global Broad Market Excluding-USD RIC Capped Free-Float Index (USD Hedged) measures the performance of investment grade debt publicly issued in global and eurobond markets, including sovereign, quasi-government, corporate, securitized and collateralized securities. The index is rules-based with qualifying securities included in the index having to be issued in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. For example, the index may include U.S. based issuers that have issued non-U.S. dollar denominated debt if they meet index inclusion rules. Qualifying securities must have an investment grade rating (based on the middle rating of Moody’s, S&P and Fitch). If rated by all three agencies, two of the three ratings must be Baa3/BBB- or higher; if rated by two agencies, the lowest rating must be Baa3/BBB- or higher; and if rated by a single agency the security must be rated Baa3/BBB- or higher. In addition, qualifying securities must have at least one year remaining term to final maturity, at least 18 months to final maturity at point of issuance and a fixed coupon schedule. Callable perpetual securities qualify provided they are at least one year from the first call date. Fixed-to-floating rate securities also qualify provided they are callable within the fixed rate period and are at least one year from the last call prior to the date the bond transitions from a fixed to a floating rate security. The index excludes certain types of securities, including, among others, U.S. dollar denominated securities, U.S. Treasury bills, Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), and stripped coupon or principal securities; however, original issue zero coupon bonds are included in the index. The securities in the index are updated on the last business day of each month.
The fund will attempt to hedge its foreign currency exposure, primarily through the use of foreign currency exchange forward contracts and futures contracts, in order to correlate to the returns of the index, which is U.S. dollar hedged and to seek to minimize the currency risk associated with investment in bonds denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. The fund may also use derivatives as a substitute for taking a position in an underlying asset and to help manage interest rate and credit risk exposure.
It is the fund’s policy that under normal circumstances it will invest at least 80% of its net assets (including, for this purpose, any borrowings for investment purposes) in bonds. Under normal
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“ICE®” is a registered trademark of ICE Data Indices, LLC or its affiliates and “BofA®” is a registered trademark of Bank of America Corporation licensed by Bank of America Corporation and its affiliates (“BofA”) and may not be used without BofA’s prior written approval. These trademarks have been licensed, along with the ICE Global Broad Market Excluding-USD RIC Capped Free-Float Index (USD Hedged) (“Index”) for use by Charles Schwab Investment Management, Inc., dba Schwab Asset Management, in connection with the Schwab International Bond ETF. The Schwab International Bond ETF is not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by ICE Data Indices, LLC, its affiliates or its Third Party Suppliers (“ICE Data and its Suppliers”). ICE Data and its Suppliers make no representations or warranties regarding the advisability of investing in the Schwab International Bond ETF.
circumstances, the fund may invest up to 20% of its net assets in securities not included in its index. The principal types of these investments include those that the investment adviser believes will help the fund track the index, such as investments in (a) securities that are not represented in the index but the investment adviser anticipates will be added to the index; (b) high-quality liquid investments, including obligations that are issued by private issuers; (c) other investment companies; and (d) derivatives, principally futures contracts. The fund may also invest in cash and cash equivalents, including money market funds, and lend its securities to minimize the difference in performance that naturally exists between an index fund and its corresponding index.
Because it may not be possible or practical to purchase all of the securities in the index, the investment adviser will seek to track the total return of the index by using sampling techniques. Sampling techniques involve investing in a limited number of index securities that, when taken together, are expected to perform similarly to the index as a whole. These techniques are based on a variety of factors, including interest rate and yield curve risk, maturity exposures, industry, sector and issuer weights, credit quality, and other risk factors and characteristics. The fund generally expects that its portfolio will hold less than the total number of securities in the index, but reserves the right to hold as many securities as it believes necessary to achieve the fund’s investment objective. The fund may sell securities that are represented in the index in anticipation of their removal from the index.
The fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold more than 25% of its total assets) in a particular industry, group of industries or sector to approximately the same extent that its index is so concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), and repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities are not considered to be issued by members of any industry. Similarly, tax-exempt obligations of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.
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