HSBC MSCI Emerging Markets UCITS ETF (Dist)
HSBC MSCI Emerging Markets UCITS ETF (Dist): what it costs, where it's based, how it tracks MSCI Emerging Markets, and how it sits next to the other MSCI Emerging Markets funds Europeans hold. The facts, from its own reports, and no verdict.
The facts
- Fee (TER)
- 0.15%
- Domicile
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- Structure
- Physical (full)
- Income
- Distributing
- Size
- €3.8bn
- Launched
- Sep 2011
- Securities lending
- Yes
- ISIN
- IE00B5SSQT16
- Provider
- HSBC
- Primary ticker
- HMEF
- Irish-domiciled
- Pays income out
- Lends securities
The lowest-fee physical fund on this index, at 0.15%: full replication, and it pays out quarterly.
How far it drifts from the index
- Return 1y
- 42.5%
- Return 3y
- 69.8%
- Return 5y
- 44.9%
Over the period trackingdifferences.com measures, it trailed its index by about 0.41% a year, all in. That gap is the fee plus the cost of tracking, made real.
Returns are total return in euros to 30 June 2026, from justETF, so every fund is measured to the same date. “Vs index” is the average yearly tracking difference against its own index, from trackingdifferences.com (the standard European source); negative means it beat its index.
What the fee costs over time
Held at €100,000 for thirty years, this fund's fee costs roughly €9k more than the cheapest MSCI Emerging Markets fund on this shortlist, on fee alone. Put your own pot and horizon in and see it as months of your life:
The other MSCI Emerging Markets funds
Same index, so nearly the same holdings. What separates them is fee, domicile and structure, which is the tracking difference above, fund by fund.
| Fund | Fee | Domicile | Vs index |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xtrackers MSCI Emerging Markets UCITS ETF 1CXMME · Xtrackers (DWS) | 0.18% | 🇮🇪 Ireland | +0.14% |
| iShares MSCI EM UCITS ETF (Acc)SEMA · iShares | 0.18% | 🇮🇪 Ireland | +0.48% |
| iShares MSCI EM UCITS ETF (Dist)IEEM · iShares | 0.18% | 🇮🇪 Ireland | +0.51% |
| Amundi MSCI Emerging Markets Swap UCITS ETF (Acc)AEEM · Amundi | 0.20% | 🇱🇺 Luxembourg | +0.42% |
| SPDR MSCI Emerging Markets UCITS ETF (Acc)SPYM · SPDR (State Street) | 0.18% | 🇮🇪 Ireland | +0.31% |
| Invesco MSCI Emerging Markets UCITS ETF (Acc)MXFS · Invesco | 0.09% | 🇮🇪 Ireland | +0.62% |
Which line do I buy?
The same share class lists on several exchanges in several currencies. The tickers below are one and the same fund: buying the euro line or the dollar line changes nothing about what you earn. Pick whichever your broker offers cheapest.
- HMEF · LSE · GBP
- HMEM · LSE · USD
- H4ZF · Xetra · EUR
Where to buy it
Which broker holds this cheapest for your monthly buy is the broker guide's half, with the yearly cost priced.
Know a figure here that's wrong or out of date? Point me to the line and a source. Every correction gets checked before the yearly refresh. That's how this page stays right.
Report a correctionCommon questions
- Is HMEF accumulating or distributing?
- Distributing. HMEF pays its dividends out as cash, which some countries tax the year you receive it.
- Where is HMEF domiciled, and does it matter?
- Ireland. Ireland's US tax treaty taxes the fund's US dividends at 15% instead of 30%, so an Irish fund quietly keeps more of them. On a US-heavy index that edge can outweigh a few hundredths of a percent of fee. Your own country's tax on the fund is a separate question, and that's the atlas's job. The whole mechanism, layer by layer, is in the withholding guide.
- Is HMEF's fee good?
- At 0.15% it isn't the cheapest MSCI Emerging Markets fund here (the lowest is 0.09%), but fee is only step one. What a fund actually keeps after US dividend tax and lending is the tracking difference above, where a slightly pricier fund sometimes comes out ahead.
- Which HMEF ticker do I actually buy?
- Whichever line your broker offers cheapest. HMEF, HMEM, H4ZF are the same share class on different exchanges and currencies: the holdings are identical, and buying the euro line or the dollar line changes nothing about what you earn.
Checked July 2026
The structural facts (fee, domicile, structure, size) are each fund’s own, from its factsheet or KID, checked and cited. The returns come from justETF, a reputable ETF data service, so every fund is measured to the same date on the same basis: the only honest way to compare them. The tracking difference (how each fund actually did against its own index) comes from trackingdifferences.com, the standard European source. I don’t compute any of it myself, and there are still no affiliate links.
No affiliate links. No paywall. Nothing on this page is for sale, and no broker pays me to rank one fund above another. The neutrality is the whole point.
Structural facts from the funds’ own reports, returns via justETF, tracking via trackingdifferences.com. Not a recommendation, and I’m not a licensed adviser. Past returns are not a guide to future ones. Which fund suits you depends on your broker, your account and your country’s tax. Not advice.
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