The SEC posted a "Sunshine Act Meeting" notice late Wednesday, officially confirming its meeting on Money Market Fund Reform next Wednesday (July 23). In addition to voting on the reform alternatives of floating NAV for prime institutional funds, emergency gates and fees, or a combination of these, it appears that the Commission will provide exemptive relief from 'de minimus' taxes and propose rules on ratings. The statement says, "Notice is hereby given, pursuant to the provisions of the Government in the Sunshine Act, Pub. L. 94-409, that the Securities and Exchange Commission will hold an Open Meeting on Wednesday, July 23, 2014 at 10:00 a.m., in the Auditorium, Room L-002. The subject matters of the Open Meeting will be: The Commission will consider whether to adopt amendments to certain rules under the Investment Company Act of 1940 that govern the operation of money market funds and related amendments to Form PF under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. The Commission will also consider whether to issue a related notice of proposed exemptive relief. The Commission will consider whether to (i) re-propose amendments to the principal rule under the Investment Company Act of 1940 that governs the operation of money market funds to address provisions that reference credit ratings and (ii) propose an amendment to the diversification provisions in that rule. At times, changes in Commission priorities require alterations in the scheduling of meeting items. For further information and to ascertain what, if any, matters have been added, deleted or postponed, please contact: The Office of the Secretary at (202) 551-5400. Kevin M. O'Neill, Deputy Secretary."
In other news, Crane Data's most recent monthly Money Fund Intelligence Family & Global Rankings, which ranks the asset totals and market share of managers of money funds in the U.S. and globally, shows moderate asset decreases for over half of the major money fund complexes in May, and bigger decreases for the majority over the past three months ended June 30. (These "Family" rankings are available to our Money Fund Wisdom subscribers.) Goldman Sachs, UBS, Morgan Stanley, Western Asset Management, and SSgA showed solid gains in June, rising by $5.6 billion, $3.4 billion, $2.3 billion, $1.4 billion, and $1.3 billion respectively, while Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, SSgA, and First American led the increases over the 3 months through June 30, 2014, rising by $4.1B, $3.0B, $1.2B, and $1.1B, respectively. Money fund assets overall decreased by $7.1 billion in June and fell by $62.7 billion over the last three months (according to our Money Fund Intelligence XLS).
Our latest domestic U.S. money fund Family Rankings show that Fidelity Investments remained the largest money fund manager with $405.1 billion, or 16.3% of all assets (down $3.3B in June, down $10.3B over 3 mos. and down $13.9B over 12 months), followed by JPMorgan's $238.3 billion, or 9.6% (down $524M, down $5.4B, and up $13.0B for 1-month, 3-months and 12-months, respectively). Federated Investors ranks third with $201.9 billion, or 8.1% of assets (down $2.3B, down $14.4B, and down $19.2B), BlackRock ranks fourth with $184.3 billion, or 7.4% of assets (down $5.5B, down $12.9B, and up $41.4B), and Vanguard ranks fifth with $170.8 billion, or 6.9% (down $962M, down $3.1B, and up $565M).
The sixth through tenth largest U.S. managers include: Schwab ($158.2B, 6.4%), Dreyfus ($154.2B, or 6.2%), Goldman Sachs ($138.7B, or 5.6%), Wells Fargo ($108.3B, or 4.4%), and Morgan Stanley ($104.2B, or 4.2%). The eleventh through twentieth largest U.S. money fund managers (in order) include: SSgA ($83.9B, or 3.4%), Northern ($74.5B, or 3.0%), Invesco ($59.5B, or 2.4%), BofA ($47.0B, or 1.9%), Western Asset ($41.9B, or 1.7%), First American ($38.9B, or 1.6%), UBS ($36.9B, or 1.7%), Deutsche ($34.5B, or 1.4%), Franklin ($18.4B, or 0.7%), and RBC ($18.4B, or 0.7%). Crane Data currently tracks 75 managers, unchanged from last month and up one from last quarter.
Over the past year, BlackRock showed the largest asset increase (up $41.4B, or 27.5%; note that most of this is due to the addition of securities lending shares to our collections), followed by Goldman Sachs (up $14.2B, or 10.7%), JP Morgan (up $13.0B, or 5.6%), and Morgan Stanley (up $11.2B, or 12.1%). Other big gainers since June 30, 2013, include: SSgA (up $9.0B, or 12.3%), BofA (up $4.1B, or 9.5%), Dreyfus (up $3.8B, or 2.5%), American Funds (up $3.3B, or 18.1%), and Reich & Tang (up $3.3B, or 41.4%). The biggest declines over 12 months include: Federated (down $19.2B, or 8.6%), Fidelity (down $13.9B, or 3.3%) and UBS (down $9.5B, or 18.9%). (Note that money fund assets are very volatile month to month.)
When "offshore" money fund assets -- those domiciled in places like Dublin, Luxembourg, and the Cayman Islands -- are included, the top 10 managers match the U.S. list, except for BlackRock moving up to No. 3, Goldman moving up to No. 4, and Western Asset appearing on the list at No. 9. (displacing Wells Fargo from the Top 10). Looking at these largest Global Money Fund Manager Rankings, the combined market share assets of our MFI XLS (domestic U.S.) and our MFI International ("offshore), we show these largest families: Fidelity ($411.4 billion), JPMorgan ($363.1 billion), BlackRock ($299.5 billion), Goldman Sachs ($220.6 billion), and Federated ($211.4 billion). Dreyfus ($178.5B), Vanguard ($170.8B), Schwab ($158.2B), Western ($134.0B), and Morgan Stanley ($122.4B) round out the top 10. These totals include offshore US dollar funds, as well as Euro and Sterling funds converted into US dollar totals.
In other news, our July 2014 MFI and MFI XLS show that both net and gross yields remained at record lows for the month ended June 30, 2014. Our Crane Money Fund Average, which includes all taxable funds covered by Crane Data (currently 849), remained at a record low of 0.01% for both the 7-Day and 30-Day Yield (annualized, net) averages. (The Gross 7-Day Yield was also unchanged at 0.13%.) Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index shows an average yield (7-Day and 30-Day) of 0.02%, also a record low, down from 0.03% a year ago. (The Gross 7- and 30-Day Yields for the Crane 100 remained unchanged at 0.16%.) For the 12 month return through 6/30/14, our Crane MF Average returned a record low of 0.01% and our Crane 100 returned 0.02%.
Our Prime Institutional MF Index yielded 0.02% (7-day), the Crane Govt Inst Index yielded 0.01%, and the Crane Treasury Inst, Treasury Retail, Govt Retail and Prime Retail Indexes all yielded 0.01%. The Crane Tax Exempt MF Index also yielded 0.01%. (The Gross Yields for these indexes were: Prime 0.19%, Govt 0.10%, Treasury 0.07%, and Tax Exempt 0.14% in June.) The Crane 100 MF Index returned on average 0.00% for 1-month, 0.00% for 3-month, 0.01% for YTD, 0.02% for 1-year, 0.04% for 3-years (annualized), 0.06% for 5-year, and 1.63% for 10-years.
