BlackRock expands its iShares range with two active ETFs focused on European investment-grade and high-yield credit.
28 OCT, 2026
By Joanna Piwko from RankiaPro Europe
BlackRock expands its range of actively managed fixed income ETFs with two new UCITS focused on European credit, one in euro investment grade and the other in high yield. The asset manager announced them today, October 28, backed by a global fixed income platform with $1.1 trillion in assets.
José Aguilar, Head of European Credit at BlackRock, is the lead portfolio manager of EYBA, the high yield ETF.
Two actively selected European credit strategies
The new funds are the iShares € Investment Grade Corp Bond Active UCITS ETF (EBCA) and the iShares European High Yield Corp Bond Active UCITS ETF (EYBA). Both combine BlackRock’s fundamental active management with iShares’ scale and market quality.
EBCA offers a core allocation to high-quality euro-denominated corporate bonds, combining income, liquidity and resilience. It seeks to generate excess returns through issuer selection and sector rotation, with a focus on diversification and downside protection.
EYBA seeks to generate income and diversify portfolios by investing in European high yield issuers and sectors. According to BlackRock, this asset class offers an all-in yield close to 7%, supported by improved credit quality and generally solid corporate fundamentals.
In-depth credit analysis and security selection help identify attractive issuers and assess refinancing risks, according to the asset manager.
The current yield environment has created some of the most attractive income opportunities in European credit in years, but a more uncertain market backdrop and growing differences between issuers call for selectivity. Bottom-up fundamental analysis and security selection enable us to identify attractive credits, build portfolios with a superior risk-return profile to the benchmark, and manage risk dynamically as conditions change.
José Aguilar, Head of European Credit and Lead Portfolio Manager of EYBA, BlackRock
EBCA draws on BlackRock’s European Credit team, whose members have an average of more than 15 years of industry experience. EYBA is managed by the EMEA Leveraged Finance team, one of Europe’s largest credit research platforms, with more than €20 billion in assets under management.
| ETF | Ticker | Listing | Base currency | TER | Benchmark index |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| iShares € Investment Grade Corp Bond Active UCITS ETF | EBCA | Xetra, Euronext Milan | EUR | 0,25% | ICE BofA Euro Corporate Index |
| iShares European High Yield Corp Bond Active UCITS ETF | EYBA | Xetra, Euronext Milan | EUR | 0,40% | ICE BofA Euro High Yield Constrained Index |
Active fixed income is gaining ground in ETFs
The launch comes amid rising demand for active fixed income. According to data cited by BlackRock, active fixed income strategies in EMEA have attracted around $175 billion in net inflows since 2025, making them the main driver of active fund growth over that period.
Almost one-third (32%) of net inflows into cross-border active UCITS funds went to active ETFs in the first eight months of 2026. Active fixed income ETFs account for 11.5% of net inflows into fixed income UCITS ETFs so far this year, up from 3.7% in 2024, and their assets have grown 2.7-fold since the end of 2024.
Investors are increasingly looking for more options to access active fixed income. EBCA and EYBA expand that choice in European investment-grade and high-yield credit, two of the most popular active fixed-income categories in Europe, and allow investors to choose the format that best suits their needs. We expect to add more active fixed-income ETFs to the range before the end of 2026.
Vasiliki Pachatouridi, Head of Fixed Income Product Strategy for iShares in EMEA, BlackRock
The move follows the recent expansion of the iBonds range in Europe, with four new fixed-income ETFs maturing in 2036 and 2037.
