Portfolio Turnover. The Fund
may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are
held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund's portfolio turnover rate was 29% of the average
value of its portfolio.
Principal Investment
Strategies
The Fund seeks to track the investment results
of the MSCI Emerging Markets Extended ESG Focus Index (the “Underlying Index”), which has been developed by MSCI Inc. (the “Index Provider” or “MSCI”). The Underlying Index is an optimized equity index designed to
reflect the equity performance of companies that have favorable environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) characteristics (as determined by the Index Provider), while exhibiting risk and return characteristics similar to those of the
MSCI Market Cap Weighted Index (the “Parent Index”). The Index Provider begins with the Parent Index, excludes securities of companies involved in the business of tobacco, companies involved with controversial weapons, producers and
retailers of civilian firearms, as well as companies involved in very severe business controversies (in each case as determined by the Index Provider), and then follows a quantitative process that is designed to determine optimal weights for
securities to maximize exposure to securities of companies with higher ESG ratings, subject to maintaining risk and return characteristics similar to the Parent Index. The Index Provider then calculates the size of each company’s
exposure to each key issue based on the company’s business segment and
geographic risk, and analyzes the extent to which companies have developed robust strategies and programs to manage ESG risks and opportunities. Using a sector-specific key issue weighting model, companies are rated and ranked in comparison to their
industry peers. As of May 14, 2018, the Underlying Index consisted of securities from the following 22 countries: Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines,
Poland, Qatar, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. The Underlying Index may include large- and mid-capitalization companies. As of May 14, 2018, a significant portion of the Underlying Index is
represented by securities of companies in the financials and information technology sectors. The components of the Underlying Index, and the degree to which these components represent certain industries or sectors and countries, are likely to change
over time. Prior to the selection of the Underlying Index on June 1, 2018, the Fund tracked the MSCI Emerging Markets ESG Focus Index.
BFA uses a “passive” or indexing approach to try to
achieve the Fund’s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to “beat” the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued.
Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will
substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio