Crane Data's latest Money Fund Market Share rankings show asset decreases for majority of the largest U.S. money fund complexes in the latest month. Money market fund assets decreased by $22.5 billion, or 0.8%, overall in March, and they've decreased by $7.5 billion, or 0.3%, over the past 3 months YTD. For the past 12 months through March 31, total assets are up $99.2 billion, or 3.9%. The biggest gainer in the past month was Goldman Sachs, which rose by $4.3 billion, or 2.2%. BlackRock, Invesco, First American, Fidelity, and Franklin also increased, rising by $1.5 billion, $1.1B, $1.0B, $968M, and $850M, respectively. (Our domestic U.S. "Family" rankings are available in our MFI XLS product, our global rankings are available in our MFI International product, and the combined "Family & Global Rankings" are available to Money Fund Wisdom subscribers.) We also write below about Invesco, which posted an update that discloses the strike times for its floating NAV money funds (come Oct. 1, 2016).
Goldman Sachs, Northern, Invesco, Federated, and Fidelity had the largest money fund asset increases over the past 3 months, rising by $27.3 billion, $6.4B, $4.7B, $3.3B, and $2.7B, respectively. Over the past year through March 31, 2016, Fidelity showed the largest asset increase (up $44.7B, or 11.1%), followed by Goldman Sachs (up $43.3B, or 28.5%), Morgan Stanley (up $14.8B, or 12.7%), SSGA (up $14.5B, or 18.1%), and Federated (up $9.5B, or 4.6%). Other asset gainers for the past year include: Vanguard (up $7.2B, 4.1%), BlackRock (up $7.0B, or 3.3%), Northern ($5.9B, 6.8%), Schwab (up $4.9B, 3.0%), and Wells Fargo (up $2.5B, or 2.3%).
The biggest decliners over 12 months include: Dreyfus (down $17.4B, or -10.3%), JP Morgan (down $15.1B, or -6.1%), Deutsche (down $6.8B, or -20.7%), RBC (down $4.8B, or -29.4%), and BofA (down $4.0B, or -8.5%). BofA's assets decreased $9.8 billion in March, the bulk of which was due to the liquidation of its Municipal MMFs. These weren't part of the pending merger into BlackRock's MMFs, which is scheduled to take place April 15. (Note that money fund assets are volatile month to month.)
Our latest domestic U.S. Money Fund Family Rankings show that Fidelity Investments remains the largest money fund manager with $448.2 billion, or 16.8% of all assets (down $968 million in March, up $2.7B over 3 mos., and up $44.7B over 12 months). Fidelity was followed by JPMorgan with $232.8 billion, or 8.7% market share (down $6.0B, down $11.9B, and down $15.1B for the past 1-month, 3-mos. and 12-mos., respectively). BlackRock remained the third largest MMF manager with $222.6 billion, or 8.3% of assets (up $1.5B,down $2.4B, and up $7.0B). (Note, it should move ahead of JP Morgan next month after it merges in the BofA funds.) Federated Investors was fourth with $215.2 billion, or 8.0% of assets (up $515M, up $3.3B, and up $9.5B). Goldman Sachs remained in 5th place, after surpassing Vanguard in February, with $195.0 billion, or 7.3% of assets (up $4.3B, up $27.3B, and up $43.3B).
Vanguard stayed in sixth place with $180.9 billion, or 6.8%, (down $347M, up $1.6B, and up $7.2B). Schwab ($165.5B, 6.2%) was in seventh place, followed by Dreyfus in eighth place with $152.4B (5.7%), Morgan Stanley in ninth place with $130.7B (4.9%), and Wells Fargo in tenth place with $113.0B (4.2%). The eleventh through twentieth largest U.S. money fund managers (in order) include: SSGA ($94.6B, or 3.5%), Northern ($91.7B, or 3.4%), Invesco ($56.3B, or 2.1%), BofA ($43.5B, or 1.6%), Western Asset ($42.9B, or 1.6%), First American ($40.4B, or 1.5%), UBS ($38.0B, or 1.4%), Deutsche ($25.9B, or 1.0%), Franklin ($23.8B, or 0.9%), and American Funds ($16.1B, or 0.6%). Crane Data currently tracks 65 U.S. MMF managers, the same number as last 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 (dropping Vanguard to 6) and SSGA breaking into 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 ($448.2 billion), JPMorgan ($349.3 billion), BlackRock ($324.1 billion), Goldman Sachs ($282.5 billion), and Federated ($223.8 billion). Vanguard ($180.9B) was sixth, followed by Dreyfus/BNY Mellon ($177.2B), Schwab ($165.5B), Morgan Stanley ($149.5B), and SSGA ($114.9B) round out the top 10. These totals include "offshore" US Dollar money funds, as well as Euro and Pound Sterling (GBP) funds converted into US dollar totals.
Finally, our April Money Fund Intelligence and MFI XLS show that both net and gross yields continued to rise in March. The Crane Money Fund Average, which includes all taxable funds covered by Crane Data (currently 799), rose 1 basis point to 0.12% for the 7-Day Yield (annualized, net) Average, while the 30-Day Yield also went up 1 basis point to 0.11%. The Gross 7-Day Yield was 0.40% (up 2 basis points), while the Gross 30-Day Yield was 0.39% (up 2 basis points).
Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index shows an average 7-Day (Net) Yield of 0.22 (up 1 basis point) and an average 30-Day Yield of 0.22% (up from 0.20%). The Crane 100 shows a Gross 7-Day Yield of 0.46% (up 2 basis points), and a Gross 30-Day Yield of 0.46% (up 3 basis points). For the 12 month return through 3/31/16, our Crane MF Average returned 0.04% (unchanged) and our Crane 100 returned 0.08% (up 1 basis point). The total number of funds, including taxable and tax-exempt, fell to 1,103, down a whopping 58 from last month.
Our Prime Institutional MF Index (7-day) yielded 0.26% (up 2 bps) as of March 31, while the Crane Govt Inst Index was 0.12% (unchanged) and the Treasury Inst Index was 0.10% (up 1 bp). The Crane Prime Retail Index yielded 0.08% (up 1 bp), while the Govt Retail Index yielded 0.03% (unchanged) and the Treasury Retail Index was 0.02% (unchanged). The Crane Tax Exempt MF Index yielded 0.03% (up 2 bps).
The Gross 7-Day Yields for these indexes in March were: Prime Inst 0.54% (up 3 basis points from last month), Govt Inst 0.36% (up 1 bp), Treasury Inst 0.32% (up 2 bps), Prime Retail 0.44% (up 1 bp), Govt Retail 0.32% (up 2 bps), Treasury Retail 0.27%(up 3 bps), and Tax Exempt 0.19% (up 11 bps). The Crane 100 MF Index returned on average 0.02% for 1-month, 0.05% for 3-month, 0.05% for YTD, 0.08% for 1-year, 0.04% for 3-years (annualized), 0.05% for 5-year, and 1.17% for 10-years. (Contact us if you'd like to see our latest MFI XLS, Crane Indexes or Market Share report.)
In other news, Invesco published a "Money Market Regulatory Reform" update, which says, "Since July 2014, when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued new rules for money market funds, Invesco has been thoughtfully evaluating the impact.... In order to best serve our investors, we began to outline our money market fund product line in November 2015.... Today, we announce our intended strike times for our floating net asset (FNAV) funds." (See our Nov. 10, 2015 News, "Schwab Files Variable NAV Money Fund; Invesco Announces Changes.")
The piece explains, "Under new SEC rules, prime and municipal money market funds, available to both institutional investors and retail investors, will be required to transact at a floating net asset value by October 14, 2016. The following Invesco funds, which intend to transact as FNAV funds, plan to offer the following intraday price times in order to provide same-day settlement and intraday liquidity to our investors: Liquid Assets Portfolio – 9am, 12pm, 3pm; STIC Prime Portfolio – 3pm; Premier Tax-Exempt Portfolio – 3 pm."
Finally, Invesco adds, "All these portfolios plan to begin transacting at a FNAV no earlier than October 1, 2016. We will announce more detail on specific timing in the future. At this time, Invesco's government and Constant NAV (CNAV) money market funds ... intend to maintain their current settlement times."
