Fidelity slashes fees on eight index mutual funds

BOSTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Fidelity Investments, the second-largest U.S. mutual fund company, on Tuesday slashed fees by as much as one-third on eight of its index funds.

Boston-based Fidelity said the fee cuts on funds including its Spartan 500 Index Fund, Spartan Total Market Index Fund and Spartan U.S. Bond Index Fund, would take effect on Jan. 1.

The move comes amid the growing popularity of lower-cost, index-based mutual and exchange-traded funds. Competitors including BlackRock and Charles Schwab have announced fee cuts and new, low-fee index products over the past several months.

The biggest cuts at Fidelity will be on the Spartan Small Cap Index Fund, which will charge 0.3 percentage point per year, down from 0.38 points, for its "investor" class of shares and the Spartan Midcap Index Fund, which drops to 0.24 points from 0.28 points. Other funds will receive smaller cuts.

Fidelity also said it was lowering the required minimum investment amounts on 22 of its index funds.