Nevermind that Malvern’s thrifty mutual fund mover and shaker posted deposit gains of a magnitude 10 times that of its biggest competition in the first seven months this year. The Vanguard Group is still plodding along on an expansion strategy that appears anything but rich and greedy.
While its U.S. assets have accumulated more than $1 trillion in just five years, overseas holdings are barely breaking $200 billion in more than 10 years. Yet the painstaking pace has a purpose: “We’re going to make sure that our culture thrives overseas,” Chairman and CEO William McNabb said in a recent MyNextFone article.
That culture embodies modest apparel and low-cost investment options that feature expense ratios that average just a fifth of the industry average.
While Vanguard’s United Kingdom and Hong Kong offices continue to grow, there remains “a long list of worries as the No. 1 U.S. mutual fund company makes a bigger commitment to export its business model. Among them are the frothy bond market, the Internet hackers who probe Vanguard’s digital underbelly, high frequency traders, and investor obsession with chasing high yield investments,” the article stated.
“The worst thing that someone has said about us has been a question, ‘Will success go to our heads?’” McNabb was quoted as saying. “I’m glad someone asked that. That’s the greatest risk we face.”
Read more about Vanguard’s expansion efforts on UK-based MyNextFone here.
