The Fund seeks to achieve its objective by employing a passive investment strategy to track the performance of the S&P/ASX Bank Bill Index (Index). 

The Fund aims to provide investors with the performance, before fees and expenses, of an index comprised of Australian bank bills. 

Benefits of iShares

iShares ETFs are managed funds listed or quoted on exchanges (including ASX) providing you with the opportunity to gain exposure to a diversified portfolio of assets in a single transaction.

The significant benefits of investing in the Cash Funds include:

• low cost access to a highly transparent diversified portfolio of liquid institutional-quality cash and money market securities; and

• the ability to achieve capital preservation and either regular or potentially enhanced regular income.

• The significant benefits of investing in the Fixed Income Funds include:

• low cost access to diversified portfolios of Australian fixed income securities;

• access to broad market investment grade, treasury and inflation-linked fixed income exposures; and

• benchmarked to institutional-quality indices provided by leading index providers.

Other benefits of investing in iShares ETFs generally include:

• Diversification: In contrast to a direct investment in a single company or bond, an iShares ETF provides, as far as possible and practicable, exposure to all of the securities or instruments within the index that the particular iShares ETF seeks to track.

• Access global markets: iShares ETFs let you achieve international diversification by investing in overseas equity and bond markets. With iShares ETFs you can gain exposure by asset class, market capitalisation, country and sector.

• Liquidity and transparency: Each iShares ETF seeks investment results that correspond generally to the performance (before fees and expenses) of a particular index. As a traded security, an iShares ETF enables you to enter and exit your holding on the ASX. You can easily track performance and trade during ASX trading hours (subject to ASX rules).

• Managing risk: Investing in an iShares ETF can assist you in establishing a portfolio appropriate to your investment needs and risk profile.

• Lower cost: As each iShares ETF is passively managed and designed to track the performance of a particular index, the expenses of managing an iShares ETF are generally lower compared to other forms of retail managed funds. However, brokerage or adviser fees may still apply when buying or selling units of an iShares ETF.

• Receipt of income: You will generally receive income from your investment in the form of distributions. Distributions may include dividends, coupons and other income. There may be years in which no distributions are made.

• Accessibility: iShares ETFs can offer a cost-effective way to gain exposure to a diversified portfolio of securities. They can be less costly than purchasing a large number of individual securities as there are less trading costs and they offer lower thresholds than an investor might otherwise be able to afford.

About the Fund

The Fund employs a passive investment strategy that aims to provide investors with the performance of the S&P/ASX Bank Bill Index (before fees and expenses).

The Fund offers the ability to achieve capital preservation and regular income with a diversified portfolio of high quality short-term money market instruments.

The Fund is truly liquid and only holds investments in instruments that can be sold on a same day basis.

Why BILL?

1. Achieve capital preservation and regular current income with a diversified portfolio of high quality short-term money market instruments.
2. Highly liquid and transparent institutional-quality exposure.
3. Use at the core of your portfolio for your essential cash allocation.

How we invest your money

The Fund seeks to achieve its objective by employing a passive investment strategy to track the performance of the S&P/ASX Bank Bill Index (Index).

Given the synthetic nature of Index constituents (refer to section 3.4 of the PDS, titled "About the Index for further information) it is not possible to implement a traditional (i.e. full replication or optimisation) passive investment strategy, which looks to construct a portfolio of index constituents. Instead, the Fund's passive investment strategy will construct a portfolio of short-term money market securities, with consideration to the liquidity, credit and interest rate characteristics of the Index, which the Fund seeks to match. The weighted-average maturity of the Fund's portfolio will also be similar to the Index.

Additionally, investments of the Fund are required to have a short- term credit rating of A-1 or higher by Standard and Poor's Global Ratings (S&P Ratings) or equivalent rating from Moody's Investor Services (Moody's).

Given the Fund is unable to implement a traditional full replication or optimisation passive investment strategy, the Fund may at times incur greater tracking error than other ETFs (refer to the section of this PDS titled "Fund risks for further information on the risks associated with investing in the Fund).

What does the Fund invest in?

The Fund generally invests in Australian dollar cash deposits and negotiable certificates of deposits (NCDs), with the majority of such investments being with the four main Australian banks.

The Fund may also invest in Australian dollar denominated treasury notes and commercial paper issued by the Australian Government and other semi-government entities.

The Fund will not purchase any securities or invest in any deposits that have issuer-imposed repayment restrictions, such as term deposits or notice period deposit accounts. All securities will settle within the standard T+2 settlement timeframe for ETFs.

About the Index

The Index offers short-term exposure to Australian dollar- denominated bank bills with maturity profiles of up to 91 days.

Unlike traditional equity and fixed income indexes, the constituents of which are shares and bonds respectively, the Index consists of synthetic "securities that cannot be purchased and sold. The constituents of the Index are a series of 13 hypothetical weekly bills, ranging from one-week to 91 days in maturity that are interpolated using the 24 Hour Cash Rate and the 30-Day, 60-Day and 90-Day Bank Bill Swap rates (BBSW). The credit worthiness of the bills included in the Index is deemed that of prime banks, i.e., the major four Australian banks.

The 13 rates are derived from the four rate types described above and applied to each of the 13 hypothetical bills. As the Index progresses to the next weekly rebalancing date the term to maturity of each bill, and the Index as a whole, reduces daily until the shortest bill matures. The face value of this bill is then reinvested in a new bill with a term to maturity of 13 weeks and the term to maturity of the Index increases by approximately seven days. The total amount received on maturity, that is the face value, is reinvested in the discounted value of a new 91-day bill. The Index is maintained so that maturing bills are reinvested in the discounted value of a new 91-day bill on the day the cash is received (each Tuesday).