Until this morning, Vanguard’s global equity ETF shelf in Europe was essentially one product: the FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (VWCE) – the ‘VWCE & Chill’ cultural phenomenon we dissected in our deep dive into Vanguard’s European ETF business. Alongside it sat only the ESG Global All Cap UCITS ETF (V3AM), launched in March 2021 at 0.24%, which does include small caps but applies exclusionary ESG screens to the index.
VWCE was kept competitive through two fee cuts in quick succession: from 0.22% to 0.19% effective 7 October 2025 , then from 0.19% to 0.14% in July 2026.
Those cuts came against a backdrop of dependence: our analysis estimated that VWCE alone generated roughly 38% of Vanguard’s Irish UCITS ETF revenue, which long made deep cuts on the flagship economically unattractive – and helps explain why launching an entirely new, broader fund at 0.07% is a bigger statement than any fee cut on VWCE could have been.
VGLA changes the shape of the line-up: broader coverage than either existing fund, no screens, and a fee half of VWCE’s freshly-cut 0.14% and less than a third of V3AM’s 0.24%.
| Vanguard ETF | Launched | Index | Coverage | Small caps | TER |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FTSE Global All-Cap (VGLA) | 20 Aug 2026 | FTSE Global All Cap | ~10,000 stocks, ~98–99% of investable market cap | Yes | 0.07% |
| FTSE All-World (VWCE) | 2019 (range since 2012) | FTSE All-World | ~3,600 stocks, ~90% of investable market cap (large + mid caps) | No | 0.14% (0.22% → 0.19% Oct 2025 → 0.14% Jul 2026) |
| ESG Global All Cap (V3AM) | Mar 2021 | FTSE Global All Cap Choice | All-cap, ESG screens exclude part of the parent index | Yes (ESG-screened) | 0.24% (unchanged since launch) |
VGLA did not arrive alone. Vanguard listed it the same day as two siblings: a FTSE Global Small-Cap UCITS ETF (0.22%, accumulating – IE0007TPRF31, distributing – IE000F8RXD33) and a FTSE All-World ex-US UCITS ETF (0.12%, accumulating – IE0009A5ADV9, distributing – IE000G1H7OC0) — a three-fund set that lets investors hold the whole market in one line, or build it in modules.
