Crane Data's latest Money Fund Market Share rankings show assets were mixed to lower for most U.S. money fund complexes in March. Money fund assets decreased by $9.8 billion, or -0.3%, last month to $3.291 trillion, but assets have climbed by $79.0 billion, or 2.5%, over the past 3 months. They have increased by $306.9 billion, or 10.3%, over the past 12 months through March 31, 2019. The biggest increases among the 25 largest managers last month were seen by Fidelity, Northern, and Federated, which increased assets by $7.1 billion, $4.1B, and $3.9B, respectively. We review the latest market share totals below, and we also look at money fund yields in March.
The most noticeable declines in assets among the largest complexes in March were seen by Wells Fargo, whose MMF assets dropped by $6.6 billion, or -5.7%, JP Morgan, down $6.5 billion, or -2.2%, Morgan Stanley, with a decline of $5.2 billion, or -4.5%, and HSBC, off $3.1 billion, or -18.6%. Our domestic U.S. "Family" rankings are available in our MFI XLS product, our global rankings are available in our MFI International product. The combined "Family & Global Rankings" are available to Money Fund Wisdom subscribers.
Over the past year through March 31, 2019, Fidelity (up $91.1B, or 15.7%), Vanguard (up $68.4B, or 23.2%), JP Morgan (up $46.7B, or 18.7%), Federated (up $43.5B, or 21.7%), Goldman Sachs (up $15.5B, or 8.4%), and Schwab (up $15.0B, or 10.5%) were the largest gainers. These complexes were followed by UBS (up $14.4B, or 31.6%), Northern (up $12.5B, or 11.6%), First American (up $10.4B, or 20.9%) and Wells Fargo (up $4.5B, or 4.3%).
Vanguard, Fidelity, Federated, T Rowe Price, and SSgA had the largest money fund asset increases over the past 3 months, rising by $21.5B, $9.4B, $9.1B, $9.0B, and $7.8B, respectively. The biggest decliners over 3 months include: Goldman Sachs (down $6.8B, or -3.3%), Dreyfus (down $4.1B, or -2.5%), Wells Fargo (down $2.9B, or -2.6%), Western (down $2.3B, or -10.3%) and DWS (down $1.8B, or -8.2%).
Our latest domestic U.S. Money Fund Family Rankings show that Fidelity Investments remains the largest money fund manager with $670.5 billion, or 20.4% of all assets. That was up $7.1 billion in March, up $9.4 billion over 3 mos., and up $91.1B over 12 months. Vanguard ranked second with $363.8 billion, or 11.1% market share (up $2.6B, up $21.5B, and up $68.4B for the past 1-month, 3-mos. and 12-mos., respectively). JPMorgan was third with $295.6 billion, or 9.0% market share (down $6.5B, up $4.1B, and up $46.7B). BlackRock ranked fourth with $282.8 billion, or 8.6% of assets (down $2.8B, up $3.6B, and up $3.6B for the past 1-month, 3-mos. and 12-mos.), while Federated remained in fifth with $243.9 billion, or 7.4% of assets (up $3.9B, up $9.1B, and up $43.5B).
Goldman Sachs remained in sixth place with $199.8 billion, or 6.1% of assets (up $1.4 billion, down $6.8B, and up $15.5B), while Schwab held seventh place with $157.9 billion, or 4.8% (up $2.0B, up$6.4B and up $15.0B). Dreyfus ($157.0B, or 4.8%) was in eighth place (down $2.7B, down $4.1B and down $12.8B), followed by Northern, which occupied ninth place ($119.5B, or 3.6%, up $4.1B, up $4.7B, and up $12.5B). Morgan Stanley was in 10th place ($111.5B, or 3.4%, down $5.2B, up $255M, and down $3.4B).
The 11th through 20th-largest U.S. money fund managers (in order) include: Wells Fargo ($108.8B, or 3.3%), SSgA ($86.7B, or 2.6%), Invesco ($60.8B, or 1.8%), First American ($60.4B, or 1.8%), UBS ($59.7B, or 1.8%), T Rowe Price ($36.2B, or 1.1%), Franklin ($22.2B, or 0.7%), DFA ($21.9B, or 0.7%), DWS ($20.4B, or 0.6%), and Western ($19.8B, or 0.6%). Crane Data currently tracks 69 U.S. MMF managers.
When European and "offshore" money fund assets -- those domiciled in places like Ireland, Luxembourg, and the Cayman Islands -- are included, the top 10 managers match the U.S. list, except JPMorgan and BlackRock move ahead of Vanguard, Goldman moves ahead of Federated, and Dreyfus/BNY Mellon moves ahead of Schwab. Our Global Money Fund Manager Rankings include the combined market share assets of our MFI XLS (domestic U.S.) and our MFI International ("offshore") products.
The largest Global money market fund families include: Fidelity ($679.5 billion), J.P. Morgan ($451.4B), BlackRock ($425.6B), Vanguard ($363.8B) and Goldman Sachs ($305.3B). Federated ($252.8B) was sixth and Dreyfus/BNY Mellon ($174.9B) was in seventh, followed by Schwab ($157.9B), Northern ($145.6B) and Morgan Stanley ($143.8B), which round out the top 10. These totals include "offshore" U.S. Dollar money funds, as well as Euro and Pound Sterling (GBP) funds converted into U.S. dollar totals.
The April issue of our Money Fund Intelligence and MFI XLS, with data as of 3/31/19, shows that yields were slightly higher in March across most of our taxable Crane Money Fund Indexes. The Crane Money Fund Average, which includes all taxable funds covered by Crane Data (currently 755), increased to 2.09% for the 7-Day Yield (annualized, net) Average, and the 30-Day Yield was flat at 2.07%. The MFA's Gross 7-Day Yield also increased to 2.52%, while the Gross 30-Day Yield held steady at 2.50%.
Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index shows an average 7-Day (Net) Yield of 2.27% (up 2) and an average 30-Day Yield that increased to 2.25%. The Crane 100 shows a Gross 7-Day Yield of 2.54% (up 2), and a Gross 30-Day Yield of 2.52% (up 2). For the 12 month return through 3/31/19, our Crane MF Average returned 1.73% and our Crane 100 returned 1.93%. The total number of funds, including taxable and tax-exempt, increased by 1 to 946. There are currently 755 taxable, up by 1, and 191 tax-exempt money funds (unchanged).
Our Prime Institutional MF Index (7-day) yielded 2.26% (down 1) as of March 31 while the Crane Govt Inst Index was 2.19% (up 4 basis point) and the Treasury Inst Index was up by 2 at 2.16%. Thus, the spread between Prime funds and Treasury funds is 10 basis points, while the spread between Prime funds and Govt funds is 7 basis points. The Crane Prime Retail Index yielded 2.13% (down 1 basis point), while the Govt Retail Index yielded 1.85% (up 2 bps) and the Treasury Retail Index was 1.91% (up 3 bps). The Crane Tax Exempt MF Index yield decreased in March to 1.10% (down 18 bps).
Gross 7-Day Yields for these indexes in March were: Prime Inst 2.64% (down 4 basis points), Govt Inst 2.48% (up 1 bp), Treasury Inst 2.46% (up 2 bps), Prime Retail 2.66% (up 1 bp), Govt Retail 2.46% (up 3 bps), and Treasury Retail 2.48% (up 3 bps). The Crane Tax Exempt Index deceased 18 basis points to 1.59%. The Crane 100 MF Index returned on average 0.19% over 1-month, 0.56% over 3-months, 0.55% YTD, 1.93% over the past 1-year, 1.05% over 3-years (annualized), 0.65% over 5-years, and 0.35% over 10-years. (Contact us if you'd like to see our latest MFI XLS, Crane Indexes or Market Share report.)
