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BNY Mellon National Short-Term Municipal Bond Fund
Fund Summary BNY Mellon National Short-Term Municipal Bond Fund
Investment Objective

The fund seeks to maximize current income exempt from federal income tax to the extent consistent with the preservation of capital.

Fees and Expenses

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and examples below.

Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
Annual Fund Operating Expenses - BNY Mellon National Short-Term Municipal Bond Fund
Class M Shares
Investor Shares
Investment advisory fees 0.35% 0.35%
Shareholder services fees none 0.25%
Administration fees 0.13% 0.13%
Miscellaneous other expenses 0.03% 0.03%
Total other expenses 0.16% 0.41%
Total annual fund operating expenses 0.51% 0.76%
Fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement [1] (0.07%) (0.07%)
Total annual fund operating expenses (after fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement) 0.44% 0.69%
[1] The fund's investment adviser, BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. (BNYM Investment Adviser), has contractually agreed, until December 30, 2023, to waive receipt of its fees and/or assume the direct expenses of the fund so that the direct expenses of neither class (excluding shareholder services fees, taxes, interest expense, brokerage commissions, commitment fees on borrowings and extraordinary expenses) exceed .44%. On or after December 30, 2023, BNYM Investment Adviser may terminate this expense limitation agreement at any time.
Example

The Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the fund for the time periods indicated and then hold or redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the fund's operating expenses remain the same. The one-year example and the first year of the three-, five- and ten-years examples are based on net operating expenses, which reflect the expense limitation agreement by BNYM Investment Adviser. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

Expense Example - BNY Mellon National Short-Term Municipal Bond Fund - USD ($)
1 Year
3 Years
5 Years
10 Years
Class M Shares 45 156 278 634
Investor Shares 70 236 415 936
Expense Example No Redemption - BNY Mellon National Short-Term Municipal Bond Fund - USD ($)
1 Year
3 Years
5 Years
10 Years
Class M Shares 45 156 278 634
Investor Shares 70 236 415 936
Portfolio Turnover

The fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or "turns over" its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover 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 92.90% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategy

To pursue its goal, the fund normally invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus any borrowings for investment purposes, in municipal bonds that provide income exempt from federal personal income tax. Municipal bonds are debt securities or other obligations issued by states, territories and possessions of the United States and the District of Columbia and their political subdivisions, agencies and instrumentalities, or multistate agencies and authorities, and certain other specified securities.

The fund's investments in municipal and taxable bonds must be rated investment grade (i.e., Baa/BBB or higher) at the time of purchase or, if unrated, deemed of comparable quality by BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. (BNYM Investment Adviser). Generally, the fund's average effective portfolio maturity and the average effective duration of the fund's portfolio will be less than three years. The fund may invest in individual municipal and taxable bonds of any maturity or duration. A bond's maturity is the length of time until the principal must be fully repaid with interest. Average effective portfolio maturity is an average of the maturities of bonds held by the fund directly and the bonds underlying derivative instruments entered into by the fund, if any, adjusted to reflect provisions or market conditions that may cause a bond's principal to be repaid earlier than at its stated maturity. Duration is an indication of an investment's "interest rate risk," or how sensitive a bond or the fund's portfolio may be to changes in interest rates.

The fund typically sells a security when the fund's portfolio manager believes that there has been a negative change in the credit quality of the issuer or have identified a more attractive opportunity or when the portfolio manager seeks to manage the fund's duration or tax position or to provide liquidity to meet shareholder redemptions.

Principal Risks

An investment in the fund is not a bank deposit. It is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) or any other government agency. It is not a complete investment program. The fund's share price fluctuates, sometimes dramatically, which means you could lose money.

 Municipal securities risk. The amount of public information available about municipal securities is generally less than that for corporate equities or bonds. Special factors, such as legislative changes, and state and local economic and business developments, may adversely affect the yield and/or value of the fund's investments in municipal securities. Other factors include the general conditions of the municipal securities market, the size of the particular offering, the maturity of the obligation and the rating of the issue. Changes in economic, business or political conditions relating to a particular municipal project, municipality, or state, territory or possession of the United States in which the fund invests may have an impact on the fund's share price. As an example, elevated costs or shortfalls in revenue associated with the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak could affect the ability of municipal issuers to make payments on debt obligations when due. Any such credit impairment could adversely impact the value of their bonds, which could negatively impact the performance of the fund.

 Interest rate risk. Prices of bonds and other fixed rate fixed-income securities tend to move inversely with changes in interest rates. Typically, a rise in rates will adversely affect fixed-income securities and, accordingly, will cause the value of the fund's investments in these securities to decline. A wide variety of market factors can cause interest rates to rise, including central bank monetary policy, rising inflation and changes in general economic conditions. During periods of very low interest rates, which occur from time to time due to market forces or actions of governments and/or their central banks, including the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in the U.S., the fund may be subject to a greater risk of principal decline from rising interest rates. When interest rates fall, the fund's investments in new securities may be at lower yields and may reduce the fund's income. Very low or negative interest rates may magnify interest rate risk. Changing interest rates may have unpredictable effects on markets, may result in heightened market volatility and may detract from fund performance. The magnitude of these fluctuations in the market price of fixed-income securities is generally greater for securities with longer effective maturities and durations because such instruments do not mature, reset interest rates or become callable for longer periods of time.

 Prepayment risk. Some securities give the issuer the option to prepay or call the securities before their maturity date, which may reduce the market value of the security and the anticipated yield-to-maturity. Issuers often exercise this right when interest rates fall. If an issuer "calls" its securities during a time of declining interest rates, the fund might have to reinvest the proceeds in an investment offering a lower yield, and therefore might not benefit from any increase in value as a result of declining interest rates. During periods of market illiquidity or rising interest rates, prices of "callable" issues are subject to increased price fluctuation.

 Credit risk. Failure of an issuer of a security to make timely interest or principal payments when due, or a decline or perception of a decline in the credit quality of the security, can cause the security's price to fall. The lower a security's credit rating, the greater the chance that the issuer of the security will default or fail to meet its payment obligations.

 Liquidity risk. When there is little or no active trading market for specific types of securities, it can become more difficult to sell the securities in a timely manner at or near their perceived value. In such a market, the value of such securities and the fund's share price may fall dramatically. Investments that are illiquid or that trade in lower volumes may be more difficult to value. The secondary market for certain municipal bonds tends to be less well developed or liquid than many other securities markets, which may adversely affect the fund's ability to sell such municipal bonds at attractive prices.

 Market risk. The value of the securities in which the fund invests may be affected by political, regulatory, economic and social developments, and developments that impact specific economic sectors, industries or segments of the market.  In addition, turbulence in financial markets and reduced liquidity in equity, credit and/or fixed-income markets may negatively affect many issuers, which could adversely affect the fund.  Global economies and financial markets are becoming increasingly interconnected, and conditions and events in one country, region or financial market may adversely impact issuers in a different country, region or financial market.  These risks may be magnified if certain events or developments adversely interrupt the global supply chain; in these and other circumstances, such risks might affect companies world-wide.  Recent examples include pandemic risks related to COVID-19 and aggressive measures taken world-wide in response by governments, including closing borders, restricting international and domestic travel, and the imposition of prolonged quarantines of large populations, and by businesses, including changes to operations and reducing staff. 

 Management risk. The investment process used by the fund's portfolio manager could fail to achieve the fund's investment goal and cause your fund investment to lose value.

Performance

The following bar chart and table provide some indication of the risks of investing in the fund. The bar chart shows the performance of the fund's Class M shares from year to year. The table compares the average annual total returns of the fund's Class M shares and Investor shares to those of the S&P Municipal Bond Investment Grade Short Index and the S&P Municipal Bond Short Index.

After-tax performance is shown only for Class M shares. After-tax performance of the fund's Investor shares will vary. After-tax returns are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal tax rates, and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on the investor's tax situation and may differ from those shown, and the after-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their shares through U.S. tax-deferred arrangements such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. Returns after taxes on distributions and sale of fund shares may be higher than returns before taxes or returns after taxes on distributions due to an assumed tax benefit from losses on a sale of the fund's shares at the end of the period.

The fund's past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the fund will perform in the future. Performance for each share class will vary due to differences in expenses.

Year-by-Year Total Returns as of 12/31 each year (%)Class M
Bar Chart

Best Quarter
Q2, 2020: 1.82%
Worst Quarter
Q1, 2020: -0.98%

The year-to-date total return of the fund's Class M shares as of September 30, 2022 was -3.98%.

Average Annual Total Returns as of 12/31/21
Average Annual Returns - BNY Mellon National Short-Term Municipal Bond Fund
Average Annual Returns, 1 Year
Average Annual Returns, 5 Years
Average Annual Returns, 10 Years
Class M Shares 0.22% 1.49% 0.99%
Investor Shares (0.04%) 1.23% 0.75%
After Taxes on Distributions | Class M Shares 0.22% 1.49% 0.98%
After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | Class M Shares 0.56% 1.42% 1.00%
S&P Municipal Bond Investment Grade Short Index reflects no deductions for fees, expenses or taxes 0.35% 1.72% 1.32% [1]
S&P Municipal Bond Short Index reflects no deductions for fees, expenses or taxes 0.41% 1.75% 1.35%
[1] The S&P Municipal Bond Investment Grade Short Index was first calculated on March 19, 2013. Accordingly, the fund will continue to report the performance of the S&P Municipal Bond Short Index until the S&P Municipal Bond Investment Grade Short Index has been calculated for a 10-year period.