Vanguard Investments has cut the fee on its All World ex-United States Shares Index exchange-traded fund (ETF).
The fund manager reduced the annual expense ratio on the ETF to 0.22 per cent, from 0.25 per cent.
"This fee reduction is a function of the way Vanguard's US domiciled funds operate," Vanguard said in a statement.
"When funds experience greater efficiencies either through asset growth, operating cost reductions, or a combination of both, the savings are delivered to the fund owners in the form of lower expenses."
The cross-listed All World ex-US fund began trading on the Australian Securities Exchange in May 2009 and in the US in March 2007. Its overall size was $6.6 billion as at December.
The ETF tracks the FTSE All World ex-US Index which includes around 2200 stocks in 46 countries including both developed and emerging markets, except for the US.
The fee cut follows BlackRock-owned ETF manufacturer iShares' own expense reductions on cross-listed funds that trade in Australia.
iShares reduced charges on seven of its ETFs tracking benchmarks including broad emerging markets, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China).
"This is not a result of any competitive dynamic in the market," iShares Australia director Tom Keenan said in January.
"This is purely the result of growth in funds under management and our ability to pass on shareholder savings due to economies of scale and the fact that the funds have reached break-points on our tiered fee structure."
The cuts ranged from one to 11 basis points.
The biggest fee decrease was on the iShares MSCI Taiwan ETF, with the annual expense reduced to 0.71 per cent from 0.82 per cent.
The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF fee was cut to 0.69 per cent from 0.72 per cent.
ETFs trade exactly like stocks and are generally designed to track the performance of an index.
