Vanguard has launched the Vanguard Emerging Markets Bond Fund, an actively managed Ucits fund.

The fund will aim to provide total return while generating a “moderate level” of income by investing mainly in a diversified portfolio of debt issued by emerging market countries.

The fund will be managed by Vanguard’s global emerging market and sovereign debt team, led by Daniel Shaykevich. The emerging market and sovereign debt team manages globally over £760m in actively managed assets across Vanguard funds.

The fund will sit alongside the actively managed Vanguard Global Credit Bond Fund and adds to the firm’s fixed income index funds, including the Vanguard USD Emerging Markets Government Bond UCITS ETF and Vanguard Global Bond Index Fund.

The ongoing charge figure (OCF) will be 0.6% for retail investors.

Paul Jakubowski, Vanguard’s head of investment in Europe, said: “Emerging markets debt is an asset class where we’ve seen a lot of performance differentiation among active managers.

“We believe a strong team and a rigorous investment process can really make a difference in delivering consistent alpha. Vanguard has deep roots in active management and we firmly believe that there is a role for both low-cost active and index funds to give investors the best chance for investment success.”

The Ucits fund is domiciled in Ireland and is benchmarked against the JP Morgan EMBI Global Diversified Index.