The August issue of Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence newsletter was posted on our website and e-mailed to subscribers this morning. It features the articles: "Money Fund Expenses, Gross Yields, Hit Record Low," which reviews the record lows reached by our Expense and Gross Yield averages; "Goldman, MS Join JPM in Disclosing Daily Liquidity," which discusses the recent disclosure of daily 1-day and 7-day liquidity levels; and, "Studies, Comments Focus Fire on Floating NAV," which quotes from comment letters and studies on the costs of a floating NAV. We've also updated our Money Fund Wisdom database query system with July 31, 2013, performance statistics and rankings, and our MFI XLS will also be sent out later this morning. (It is already available at our Content center.) Our July 31 Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to go out Friday, August 9.
Our Expenses piece says, "The average expense ratio charged by money market mutual funds fell to a record low 0.14% in July (this is our Crane Money Fund Average, a simple average of all taxable money funds), down 2 basis points from the prior month. Our Crane 100 Index, an average of the largest taxable money funds, also fell to a record low of 0.16% (like yields, expense ratios are annualized). The previous record low had been 0.15% (0.17% for the Crane 100) in November and December 2011."
The August issue's lead story adds, "Gross yields for money funds also hit record lows in July 2013. The Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Gross Yield was 0.16% in July, while the Crane 100 Gross 7-Day was 0.19%. November and December 2011 was also the prior record low for this statistic too (at 0.17% and 0.21%)."
Our story on Daily Liquidity Disclosure comments, "Last month, we reported that J.P. Morgan Asset Management would begin posting daily 1-day and 7-day liquidity measures on its website (see Crane Data's June 18 News "JPMorgan Gets Jump on SEC Proposal by Posting Liquid Asset Levels"). In the past two weeks, we've learned of two more large money fund complexes that have followed suit. Both Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have begun voluntarily disclosing daily measures of liquidity in some of their money market funds." (See also, July 25 "Goldman Does Daily Liquidity Too; First Comments on SEC Proposals" and July 24 "Morgan Stanley 2nd to Announce Daily 1-Day, 7-Day Liquidity Metrics".)
The article on Floating NAV Comments explains, "Though the heavy barrage has yet to begin, some early critiques are already hitting the SEC's floating NAV option hard. The early comment postings on the SEC's Money Market Fund Reform Proposal are, as expected, overwhelmingly opposed to the float. But the big blow this month was a study from Treasury Strategies sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce that estimated the cost of a floating NAV to be in the billions. Given the SEC's recent infatuation with numbers, expect to see more of this kind of analysis."
See the latest issue and future "News" postings for more details, or contact us to request the latest issue.
