Glossary

The fund doesn’t pay out its income but reinvests it automatically, which makes the price rise. The opposite is a distributing fund.

This saves effort and creates a compounding effect, because the reinvested income earns interest too. For tax purposes, however, accumulating doesn’t automatically mean ‘tax-free until you sell’ – in Germany, for example, the annual Vorabpauschale (advance lump-sum taxation) applies. If you want regular payouts, choose a distributing version: the fund behind A41BTT also has a distributing share class with its own ISIN. You’ll find what applies in your country under Tax.

One hundredth of a percentage point: 100 basis points make 1 percentage point. A premium of 8.5 basis points is therefore equal to 0.085 percentage points.

Basis points make small differences in interest rates easy to compare without juggling decimal places. Example: DBX0AN’s index reflects €STR plus 8.5 basis points – if €STR stands at 2.40%, that makes 2.485%. ECB rate decisions are often expressed in basis points too: a rise of 25 basis points lifts the key rate from, say, 2.25% to 2.50%. The same goes for costs – a TER of 0.10% is 10 basis points a year.

The bid price is the price at which you can sell; the ask (offer) price is the price at which you can buy. The difference between the two is the spread.

Both prices are usually quoted by a market maker, which buys units at the bid price and sells them at the slightly higher ask price. With a limit order, you set the maximum price you’re willing to pay or the minimum you want to receive. For A41BTT, the two prices are usually just a few hundredths of a per cent apart during Xetra’s main trading hours; outside these hours the gap can be considerably wider.

The risk that a contractual partner – such as the swap counterparty – fails to make its payments. For UCITS funds it is limited to 10% of the fund’s assets per counterparty.

With a swap-based ETF, the most important counterparty is the bank that pays the index return. If it were to default, the worst the fund could lose is the outstanding claim under the swap. In practice, the swap is reset so often that this amount usually stays well below the legal limit. The substitute basket remains the property of the fund throughout. More on the Safety page.

Statutory protection of bank deposits such as easy-access savings – in the EU up to €100,000 per customer per bank. It doesn’t apply to ETFs, but their assets are protected as segregated assets.

If the worst happens, the money is usually reimbursed within seven working days. Easy-access savings, fixed-term deposits and current accounts are covered; securities don’t need this protection because they don’t form part of the bank’s assets anyway. If you earn interest on cash held with your broker, check which bank actually holds the money and whether some of it is invested in money market funds. More in the comparison A41BTT or interest on cash?

The interest rate at which banks can park surplus money with the European Central Bank. €STR usually sits just below it and moves almost in lockstep with it.

It is one of the ECB’s three key interest rates and today the most important one, because it sets the floor for the money market: hardly any bank will lend money overnight for much less than it would get from the ECB. The ECB’s Governing Council decides on key interest rates roughly every six weeks; new rates usually take effect from the Wednesday of the following week. If it raises the deposit facility rate, €STR rises from that day too – and with it A41BTT’s return. If it cuts the rate, the reverse applies.

An index fund traded on a stock exchange. An ETF tracks an index and can be bought and sold on the exchange just like a share – usually much more cheaply than actively managed funds.

Because nobody makes ongoing investment decisions in an ETF – the fund simply follows a fixed rule – costs stay low. Trading takes place at continuously updated prices, for example on Xetra. Besides equity ETFs, there are ETFs on bonds, commodities or – like A41BTT – interest rates. In the EU, ETFs are usually UCITS funds and therefore count as segregated assets.

Identification numbers for a security. The ISIN (LU3025345516) is used internationally, the WKN (A41BTT) in Germany. With either of them you can find the ETF at any broker.

The ISIN has twelve characters and begins with the country code of the fund’s domicile – ‘LU’ stands for Luxembourg. There are also ticker symbols, which differ from one trading venue to another: EDEG on Xetra, CASHE in Paris and Milan, CSGB and CSHE in London. Note: the distributing share class of the same fund has its own ISIN – so check the number carefully when you buy.

A legally required short document on an investment product setting out its costs, risks and scenarios. Together with the prospectus, it is the binding basis for a purchase.

It follows the same structure throughout the EU and is no more than three pages long, so that products from different providers can be compared. Your broker must make it available to you before your first purchase. You’ll find A41BTT’s key information document on the BNP Paribas Asset Management website – it is also the source of much of the information on this site.

A buy or sell order with a set maximum or minimum price. It is only executed if the price reaches the limit, which protects you from price outliers.

Without a limit, your order is executed at the next available price – usually without any problems, but in thin trading or shortly after the market opens, sometimes at a poor price. For A41BTT, it’s enough to set the limit just above the current ask price; the order will then usually be executed immediately. Most brokers don’t charge extra for a limit. If the limit is only valid for one day, the order expires if it isn’t executed.

A market participant that continuously quotes buying and selling prices, thereby providing liquidity. For A41BTT, this role is performed by BNP Paribas Arbitrage, among others.

Market makers are usually banks or trading firms that have made this commitment to the exchange. This means you can trade at any time, even if nobody else happens to be buying or selling. They earn their money from the spread. With ETFs, the prices are based on the value of the fund’s assets, so they hardly deviate from fair value. The more market makers support an ETF, the tighter the spreads usually are.

An ETF that tracks very short-term interest rates, such as €STR. It barely fluctuates and is suitable for parking money short term – much like an easy-access savings account.

Instead of equities or long-dated bonds, money market ETFs invest in very short-term interest rates – usually €STR or short-dated government bonds. That’s why their price rises almost in a straight line. They suit money you’ll need in the coming months or that is waiting for an opportunity, not long-term wealth building. They aren’t covered by deposit protection, but as segregated assets they are kept separate from the provider. For an overview of the alternatives to A41BTT, see the money market ETF comparison.

Summary risk indicator from the key information document, on a scale from 1 (low risk) to 7 (high risk). A41BTT is rated in class 1.

The SRI combines market risk – how much the price fluctuates – with credit risk, i.e. whether payments might not be made. Class 1 stands for very low volatility, class 7 for very high; typical equity ETFs are rated 4 to 5. Important: the SRI doesn’t capture every risk. A41BTT’s key information document explicitly mentions counterparty and derivative risk in addition – more under Safety.

Automatic, regular investment of a fixed amount, for example every month. Many brokers execute ETF savings plans free of charge.

You set the amount and frequency once – for example €100 at the start of each month – and your broker buys units automatically, often fractions of units too. With equity ETFs, the main point is cost averaging; with a money market ETF such as A41BTT, it’s more about convenience, for example when building an emergency fund. The Savings plan page shows what your regular contributions could grow into and where A41BTT is available as a savings plan.

A fund’s assets are legally separate from those of the fund company. If the company goes bust, the fund’s assets still belong to the investors.

Specifically, the fund’s assets are held by a depositary – for A41BTT, BNP Paribas in Luxembourg. Legally, A41BTT is a sub-fund of a Luxembourg investment company (SICAV); its assets are still kept separate from those of the fund company. Something similar applies to your investment account: even if your broker becomes insolvent, the ETF units remain your property and are transferred to another account. This is a different kind of protection from the deposit protection on easy-access savings: it has no upper limit, but it doesn’t protect you against falling prices.

The difference between the ask and the bid price. It is a hidden cost of every exchange trade and is very small for liquid ETFs such as A41BTT.

The spread doesn’t appear as a fee on your contract note, but it has exactly the same effect: if you buy and immediately sell again, you lose precisely this difference. With a spread of 0.03% on €10,000, that’s €3. It is tightest when trading is busiest – for A41BTT, during Xetra trading hours. With a money market ETF the spread matters all the more, because the daily return is small and it takes a few days to earn it back. The break-even calculator shows how long that takes for your amount.

Benchmark rate that banks in the euro area pay for unsecured overnight borrowing. The ECB calculates it every business day from data reported by large banks. A41BTT tracks this rate – more on the €STR page.

The ECB has published €STR since October 2019; it replaced the former benchmark rate EONIA, which was discontinued at the start of 2022. It is based on the overnight money that around 50 large banks borrow from other banks, funds, insurers and other financial companies; the ECB leaves out the top and bottom 25% of the volume and calculates a weighted average from the rest. For you as an investor, it is the yardstick for low-risk money: if €STR stands at 2.4%, a money market ETF earns roughly that before costs. A41BTT is currently a little above that because its swap counterparties pay a premium – but this isn’t guaranteed. The interest calculator shows what this means in euros.

The securities a swap-based ETF actually holds. For A41BTT, according to the key information document, at least 75% of them are shares in companies from the EEA. Their performance is swapped for the index return.

The substitute basket is, in a sense, the collateral for the swap. Depending on the fund, it can consist of very different securities, such as bonds instead of equities; exactly what a fund holds is set out in its fund documents. In normal times the composition doesn’t matter, because the swap offsets its performance. It only becomes important if the swap counterparty defaults: the fund then holds these securities, and their price may fluctuate until the position is unwound. BNP Paribas Asset Management publishes the current composition.

An exchange agreement between the fund and a bank: the fund hands over the performance of its substitute basket and receives the index return in exchange.

For A41BTT, this means in practice: if the shares in the substitute basket rise, the fund passes the gain on to the bank; if they fall, the bank makes up the loss. What’s left for you is the €STR return – currently even a little more, because the banks pay a premium for the swap, though it isn’t guaranteed. To stop the outstanding claim against the bank from growing too large, the swap is reset regularly. The diagram on the Safety page shows how it all fits together.

The fund doesn’t buy the index constituents directly; instead, it receives the index return through a swap with a bank. The alternative is physical replication. More under Safety.

As collateral, the fund holds its own portfolio of securities, the substitute basket. For interest rate indices such as €STR, this is the most practical approach, because a fund can’t buy overnight loans between banks directly. The advantage: the index is tracked very closely – and if the swap counterparties pay a premium, as they currently do for A41BTT, the fund even comes out ahead of it. The disadvantage: it creates counterparty risk towards the bank, which is limited by law for UCITS funds.

Total expense ratio: a fund’s annual costs as a percentage of its assets. They are deducted from the fund on an ongoing basis and are already reflected in the price. For A41BTT they amount to 0.10% a year.

The TER covers management, custody and the index licence, among other things, but not your broker’s costs such as trading fees. On €10,000 with a TER of 0.10%, that comes to around €10 a year. Because money market ETFs only return a few per cent, the TER accounts for a bigger share of the income here than with equity ETFs. It pays to compare: the cheapest €STR ETFs cost 0.05% – more in the money market ETF comparison.

The difference between a fund’s actual return and the index return over a given period. It shows what an ETF really costs when all is said and done, and is often more meaningful than the TER.

The TER is only part of the story: swap costs, income from securities lending or tax effects can further reduce or improve the actual return. Tracking difference is usually measured over a calendar year. If it is −0.10%, the ETF costs exactly its TER when all is said and done; if it is closer to zero or even positive, the fund is working more efficiently. A fair comparison requires several years of history – for A41BTT, launched in June 2025, that isn’t possible yet.

EU framework for investment funds with strict requirements on diversification, risk and transparency. A41BTT is a UCITS ETF.

UCITS stands for ‘Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities’. Among other things, the EU directive sets out how widely a fund must diversify, how much risk it may take on towards individual counterparties – for swaps, no more than 10% of the fund’s assets – and what information investors receive, such as the key information document. Once a UCITS fund is authorised in one EU country, it can also be marketed in other EU countries after a simple notification, which is why such funds are the standard for retail investors.

Deutsche Börse’s electronic trading venue. Main trading hours are Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 17:30 German time; during these hours spreads are usually at their tightest.

Xetra is one of the trading venues with the highest ETF turnover in Europe. Other venues such as gettex take their cue from Xetra prices, which is why spreads there are also tightest during Xetra’s main trading hours. Since December 2025, retail investors can also trade on Xetra from 08:00 to 22:00 with brokers that offer it, but outside the main trading hours the spread is often wider. A41BTT is listed on Xetra under the ticker EDEG. You’ll find more tips for buying cheaply under Buy.