The April issue of Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence was sent out to subscribers Wednesday morning. The latest edition of our flagship monthly newsletter features the articles: "BlackRock Latest to Telegraph Changes; 7-Day Max Maturity," which reviews big changes from the country's third largest money fund manager, BlackRock; "Wells Fargo's Weaver Says Clients Still Want Yield Too," which profiles Wells Capital Management's new head of money market funds, Jeff Weaver; and "Deposits, FDIC 'Amalgamators' Growing; Going Inst," which examines the increasing availability of FDIC insurance far above the $250K limit. We have also updated our Money Fund Wisdom database query system with March 31, 2015, performance statistics, and have sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet. (MFI, MFI XLS and our Crane Index products are all available to subscribers via our Content center.) Our April Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to go out on Friday, April 10, and our March Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to ship next Wednesday, April 15.
The lead article in MFI on BlackRock and Western's Changes says, "Another month, another major announcement in the money market fund world. This time it’s from the second largest money fund manager, BlackRock, which informed clients of significant changes to its MMF lineup, including fund conversions, liquidations, and the addition of innovative new 7-day maximum maturity funds. Also notable: the fourth largest MMF, BlackRock TempFund -- a Prime Institutional fund -- will remain as is. BlackRock writes in its April 6 letter, "A number of clients have indicated they are interested in continuing to invest in prime funds. We plan to maintain our largest prime fund, the $66.5 billion TempFund as a prime institutional fund. Our historical analysis shows that in normal market conditions, TempFund has demonstrated minimal per share net asset value volatility. Given the anticipated forward environment, we believe that institutional prime funds are likely to offer investors a compelling yield premium relative to CNAV government funds."
On the proposed 7-day maximum maturity funds the article comments, "The $2.4 billion BlackRock TempCash Fund, however, will be converted to a 7-day maximum maturity fund, essentially eliminating the floating NAV and the concerns over emergency gates and fees. The letter explains, "Some clients have indicated interest in a cash investment product that fits between a CNAV government fund and a FNAV institutional prime fund.... BlackRock will offer an institutional prime fund that limits holdings to those with a maturity of seven days or less."
In our middle column, we feature an interview with Wells Fargo's new head of MMFs, Jeff Weaver. It reads, "When Dave Sylvester, the long-time head of money market funds at Wells Fargo, announced his retirement at the end of 2014, the reins were handed over to Jeff Weaver, who now wears two hats. Weaver, the head of Wells Capital Management's short-duration team, also become head of the money market fund team effective January 1, 2015. We sat down with him to get his thoughts on not just money funds, but on separate accounts and the short-duration bond fund space. He also discussed how Wells is evaluating its money fund lineup to prepare for the upcoming rule changes."
We asked him, "Will you make any lineup changes? Weaver: We remain committed to offering retail and institutional prime, government, and municipal funds -- particularly if that's what our clients want -- and we believe they do. Many of our clients are in a wait-and-see mode until that October 2016 deadline approaches. Right now, we're evaluating our product lineup. We're speaking with clients with the goal of developing product solutions that best meet their needs. Our client base is largely institutional -- 90% institutional versus 10% retail -- so that is always front of mind as we're making these changes. Once we finalize a plan of action, we will present it to our Funds' board. We will not make any announcements until the board has seen and approved those changes."
The article on "Deposits and FDIC 'Amalgamators'" says, "Zero yields and the expiration of unlimited FDIC insurance haven't stopped the growth of bank deposits over the past year or two. Deposits have increased by almost $500 billion in the year through Jan. 31, 2015, and they've increased by almost $1.6 trillion the past 3 years. Bank and thrift deposits combined have almost doubled since the financial crisis hit hardest in late 2008; they now total a massive $7.65 trillion." It adds, "We also discuss the continued rapid growth of FDIC insurance "amalgamators," who are in the business of breaking too-big-for-insurance deposits into smaller FDIC insured pieces (spreading them among a network of banks). This segment continues to grow via brokerage sweeps, and is starting to see growth from the institutional and corporate cash segment."
Crane Data's April MFI XLS, with March 31, 2015, data shows total assets decreasing in March, the third month in a row, down $20.9 billion to $2.576 trillion after falling $1.6 billion in February and $44.6 billion in January. Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield and 30-Day Yield remained at 0.02%, while our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) stayed at 0.03% (7-day and 30-day). On a Gross Yield Basis (before expenses were taken out), funds averaged 0.14% (Crane MFA, same as last month) and 0.18% (Crane 100, up from 0.17%) on an annualized basis for both the 7-day and 30-day yield averages. Charged Expenses averaged 0.13% (unchanged) and 0.15% (up from 0.14%) for the two main taxable averages. The average WAMs for the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 were 41 and 43 days, respectively. The Crane MFA WAM was the same as last month while the Crane 100 WAM is down 1 day from the prior month. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)
