Crane Data will publish its latest Money Fund Intelligence Family & Global Rankings Tuesday, which ranks the asset totals and market share of managers of money market mutual funds in the U.S. and globally. The March edition, with data as of Feb. 28, 2015, shows asset decreases for a majority of money fund complexes in the latest month. However, most managers show gains over the past three months (due to a strong December 2014). Assets declined by $1.8 billion, or 0.1%, in February; over the last 3 months, assets are up $40.0 billion, or 1.6%. For the past 12 months through Feb. 28, total assets are up $23.1 billion, or 0.9%. Below, we review the latest market share changes and figures. (These "Family" rankings are available to our Money Fund Wisdom subscribers.)
Dreyfus, Franklin, BofA, Western, SSgA, and BlackRock were among the biggest gainers in February, rising by $4.8 billion, $3.7 billion, $2.4 billion, $2.2 billion, $1.4 billion, and $1.1B respectively. (SSgA moved back ahead of Northern into 11th place). BlackRock, JP Morgan, Dreyfus, Northern, SSgA, and Morgan Stanley led the increases over the 3 months through Feb. 28, 2015, rising by $8.5B, $5.9B, $5.6B, $4.4B, $3.9B, and $3.3B billion, respectively.
Our latest domestic U.S. money fund Family Rankings show that Fidelity Investments remained the largest money fund manager with $404.4 billion, or 15.6% of all assets (down $527 million in February, down $955M over 3 mos., and down $15.7B over 12 months), followed by JPMorgan's $254.1 billion, or 9.8% (down $1.9B, up $5.9B, and up $4.7B for the past 1-month, 3-months and 12-months, respectively). BlackRock remained in third with $217.5 billion, or 8.4% of assets (up $1.1B, up $8.5B, and up $16.0B). Federated Investors was fourth with $207.2 billion, or 8.0% of assets (down $3.4B, up $2.1B, and down $11.2B), and Vanguard ranks fifth with $173.0 billion, or 6.7% (up $893M, up $605M, and down $995M).
The sixth through tenth largest U.S. managers include: Dreyfus ($171.7B, or 6.6%), Schwab ($161.8B, 6.2%), Goldman Sachs ($145.6B, or 5.6%), Wells Fargo ($112.2B, or 4.3%), and Morgan Stanley ($110.2B, or 4.2%). The eleventh through twentieth largest U.S. money fund managers (in order) include: SSgA ($83.8B, or 3.2%), Northern ($83.2B, or 3.2%), Invesco ($61.2B, or 2.4%), BofA ($50.9B, or 2.0%), Western Asset ($47.3B, or 1.8%), First American ($41.7B, or 1.6%), UBS ($37.1B, or 1.4%), Deutsche ($33.3B, or 1.3%), Franklin ($22.5B, or 0.9%), and RBC ($16.7B, or 0.6%). Crane Data currently tracks 71 managers, down one from last month. (See our March 6 "Link of the Day," MMF Assets Down, RBB Liquidates and our March 5 "News," "Touchstone Rescinds Liquidations, Moves to Dreyfus; MFS Goes Govt" for recent consolidation news.)
Over the past year through February 28, 2015, BlackRock showed the largest asset increase (up $16.0B, or 7.9%), followed by Morgan Stanley (up $9.9B, or 9.9%), Goldman Sachs (up $9.3B, or 6.8%), Western (up $7.7B, or 19.4%), Northern (up $6.5B, or 8.5%), and SSgA (up $5.2B, or 6.6%). Other asset gainers for the year include: JP Morgan (up $4.7B, or 1.9%), First American (up $4.2B, or 11.2%), Franklin (up $3.9B, 20.9%), HSBC (up $3.3B, or 31.4%), American Funds (up $1.3B, or 9.1%), and SEI (up $1.3B, or 10.7%). The biggest decliners over 12 months include: Fidelity (down $15.7B, or -3.7%), Federated (down $11.2B, or -5.1%), UBS (down $5.2B, or -12.3%), UBS (down $3.3B, or -16.5%), Wells Fargo (down $2.3B, or 2.0%, and Schwab (down $3.0B, or -1.8%). (Note that money fund assets are very volatile month to month.)
When European and "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 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 the largest Global Money Fund Manager Rankings, the combined market share assets of our MFI XLS (domestic U.S.) and our MFI International ("offshore"), the largest money market fund families are: Fidelity ($418.2 billion), JPMorgan ($381.9 billion), BlackRock ($338.6 billion), Goldman Sachs ($228.9 billion), and Federated ($215.8 billion). Dreyfus/BNY Mellon ($198.2B), Vanguard ($173.0B), Schwab ($161.8B), Western ($128.4B), and Morgan Stanley ($126.3B) round out the top 10. These totals include offshore US Dollar funds, as well as Euro and Pound Sterling (GBP) funds converted into US dollar totals.
Also, our February 2015 Money Fund Intelligence and MFI XLS show that yields remained largely unchanged in February. Our Crane Money Fund Average, which includes all taxable funds covered by Crane Data (currently 836), remained at 0.02% for both the 7-Day Yield and the 30-Day Yield (annualized, net) Average. The Gross 7-Day Yield remained at 0.14%. Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index shows an average 7-Day Yield and 30-Day Yield of 0.03%, same as last month. (The Gross 7- and 30-Day Yields for the Crane 100 remained at 0.17%.) For the 12 month return through 2/28/15, our Crane MF Average returned 0.02% (up a tick) and our Crane 100 returned 0.02%.
Our Prime Institutional MF Index yielded 0.03% (7-day), while the Crane Govt Inst Index moved down to 0.01% (from 0.02%). 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 Inst. 0.21%, Govt Inst. 0.11% (up from 0.10%), Treasury 0.07% (up from 0.06%), and Tax Exempt 0.10% (down from 0.11%) in February. The Crane 100 MF Index returned on average 0.00% for 1-month, 0.01% for 3-month, 0.00% for YTD, 0.02% for 1-year, 0.03% for 3-years (annualized), 0.05% for 5-year, and 1.52% for 10-years.
In other news, Reuters wrote, "U.S. Fund Demand for Reverse Repo Agreements Seen at $350 bln-JPMorgan.” It says, “U.S. money market funds are expected to bid for $350 billion worth of the Federal Reserve's reverse repurchase agreements (RRPs) for the upcoming end of the first quarter, J.P. Morgan analysts said on Monday. There is typically huge demand for the Fed's reverse repos and near-cash securities at the end of the quarter as investors pare their positions in riskier holdings. "Over the past several quarter-ends, the Fed RRP has proven to serve as a source of backstop supply when liquidity temporarily dries up in the money markets," J.P. Morgan analysts wrote in a report. In addition to its daily RRP operation that has a cap of $300 billion, the U.S. central bank has said it will offer two term RRP operations that mature past March 31. On March 19, it will offer a $75 billion term RRP operation that matures on April 2, followed by a $125 billion term operation that matures on April 6."
