The June issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Friday morning, features the articles: "Shift from Treasuries to Repo Continues; FICC Repo Hits $1T," which discusses recent portfolio composition shifts in the MMF space; "Fed, EU Focus on Treasuries, Money Markets, NBFIs," which looks at bank regulators renewed interest in MMFs and non-banks; and, "Fitch: Liquidity LGIPs Rise to Over $430B; S&P Q1 Update" which reviews recent news on local government investment pools. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Friday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 5/31/25 data. Our June Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Tuesday, June 10, and our June Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Friday, June 13. (Note: Register ASAP for our upcoming Crane's Money Fund Symposium, which is in just over 2 weeks -- June 23-25 -- in Boston!)
MFI's "Shift from Treasuries" article says, "The U.S. Treasury's Office of Financial Research (OFR) published a blog piece titled, 'OFR's MMF Monitor Shows Reduced Federal Reserve ON RRP Use.' It states, 'In Q1 2025, U.S. money market funds (MMFs) experienced strong cash inflows from retail and institutional investors that pushed assets to $7.4 trillion by quarter-end, according to OFR's U.S. Money Market Fund Monitor data. Investors sought relative safety from broader market volatility and benefited from the yield advantage generally offered by MMFs over alternative investment products.'"
It continues, "They write, 'MMFs also lowered their exposure to U.S. Treasury securities and increased their repurchase agreement (repo) allocation to over $2.8 trillion.... The change primarily reflected high repo rates and a net decrease in U.S. Treasury issuance. The U.S. Department of the Treasury is conserving its borrowing authority until the federal debt limit is raised or suspended.'"
We write in our "Fed, EU Focus article, "After a period of silence, bank regulators appear to be focusing once more upon money market funds and other non-bank players in the financial markets. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Lorie Logan recently hosted a panel on 'The Increasing Role of Nonbank Institutions in the Treasury and Money Markets' at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta 2025 Financial Markets Conference. The panel featured Lou Crandall of Wrightson ICAP, Deirdre Dunn of Citigroup Global Markets and chair of the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, and Nate Wuerffel of BNY."
It states, "Logan comments, 'Our topic this afternoon is a timely one: the role of nonbank financial institutions (NBFIs) in Treasury and money markets.... The Treasury market and money markets sit at the very core of the financial system. The Treasury market finances the U.S. government, provides a safe and liquid asset relied on by investors worldwide, and creates a benchmark for broader long-term interest rates. Money markets establish overnight risk-free interest rates that are building blocks for all other asset prices, they keep credit flowing through the economy by financing a wide range of assets, and they are where the Fed implements the stance of monetary policy. And these markets are tightly linked because one of the main money markets is the repo market, where Treasury securities are financed.'"
Our "LGIP" piece says, "Fitch Ratings published 'U.S. Local Government Investment Pools Monitor: 1Q25,' which states, 'Fitch Ratings' two local government investment pool (LGIP) indices reported an aggregate asset increase in the first quarter of 2025 (1Q25) driven by Liquidity LGIPs, consistent with seasonal flow trends. Total assets for the Fitch Liquidity LGIP Index and the Fitch Short-Term LGIP Index reached $655.5 billion at quarter end, marking increases of $9.3 billion qoq and $40.5 billion yoy.' (Fitch's tables shows the Liquidity LGIP total at just $430.7 billion and the Short-Term LGIP total at $224.8 billion.)"
The article continues, "It says, 'The Fitch Liquidity LGIP Index rose by 2.3% qoq while the Fitch Short-Term LGIP Index fell by 0.2% qoq. These changes contrast with an average increase of 6.2% and average decrease of 1.8%, respectively, during the first quarter over the past three years.'"
MFI also includes the News brief, "Assets Hit Record $7.4 Trillion." It states, "Our MFI Daily asset series hit a record $7.406 trillion on June 3 (then dipped 6/4). Our MFI XLS monthly series hit a record $7.408 trillion in May. ICI's smaller weekly series shows assets retaking $7.0 trillion in the latest week." (See today's Link of the Day.)
Another News brief, "SEC Webinar Cites Money Funds," says, "Former Director of the SEC's Division of Investment Management Joel Goldberg cited money funds' survival from regulatory extinction in the early 1970's as the most important development in fund regulations. Barry Barbash also reviewed money funds' troubles during the Great Financial Crisis, and the webinar discussed tokenized MMFs."
A third News brief titled, "Portfolio Holdings: FICC Repo Hits $1T, T-Bills Drop," tells us, "Our May Money Fund Portfolio Holdings, with data as of April 30, 2025, show that holdings of Repo jumped last month while Treasuries declined. Repo, now the largest segment, increased $31.4 billion in April. Treasuries, now the second largest portfolio composition segment, decreased by $168.3 billion. Agencies were the third largest segment, CP remained fourth, ahead of CDs, Other/Time Deposits and VRDNs."
A sidebar, "Stradley Reviews MMF Regs," says, "Stradley Ronon Partner Jamie Gershkow and Associate Geena Marzouca recently published, 'Are We Trying to Kill Institutional Prime Funds? -- Money Market Funds in a Post Reform Era.' It explains, 'At a meeting of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopting significant reforms to money market fund regulation, Commissioner Peirce posed a pointed question: Are we trying to kill institutional prime funds? [T]his article looks at whether Commissioner Peirce’s concern became reality and assesses the overall impact of the reforms on the money market fund industry. [It] reviews considerations related to the implementation of certain aspects of the reforms, including liquidity fees, share cancellation, increased liquidity requirements and stress testing, and board oversight of money funds under amended Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (1940 Act).'"
Our June MFI XLS, with May 31 data, shows total assets jumped $90.3 billion to a record high $7.408 trillion, after decreasing $26.6 billion in April and $4.6 billion in March. Assets increased $90.4 billion in February, $47.9 billion in January and $113.0 billion in December. Assets jumped $196.1 billion in November, $89.9 billion in October, $155.2 billion in September, $105.6 billion in August, $19.7 billion in July and $11.8 billion last June.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was down 1 bp to 4.01%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was down 2 bps to 4.11% in May. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 4.38% and 4.38%. Charged Expenses averaged 0.37% and 0.27% for the Crane MFA and the Crane 100. (We'll revise expenses once we upload the SEC's Form N-MFP data for 5/31/25 on Monday, 6/9.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 37 days (up 3 days) and the Crane 100 WAM was up 5 days from the previous month at 39 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)
