Crane Data's latest monthly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics will be published Thursday, May 9, and we'll be writing our normal monthly update on the April 30 data for Friday's News. But we also generate a separate and broader Portfolio Holdings data set based on the SEC's Form N-MFP filings. (We continue to merge the two series, and the N-MFP version is now available via Holdings file listings to Money Fund Wisdom subscribers.) Our summary, with data as of April 30, 2019, includes holdings information from 1,187 money funds (three more than last month), representing assets of $3.502 trillion (down from $3.526 trillion). We review the latest data, which shows that total money fund assets remained over $3.5 trillion in March and that Prime MMF assets broke above the $1 trillion level, and we also excerpt from a press release announcing Cash Management Accounts from a "fin-tech" company named Investor Cash Management.
Our latest Form N-MFP Summary for All Funds (taxable and tax-exempt) shows Repurchase Agreement (Repo) holdings in money market funds totaling $1,120 billion (up from $1,034 billion on March 31), or 32.0% of all assets. Treasury holdings total $855.3 billion (down from $1,010B), or 24.4%, and Government Agency securities total $734.9 billion (up from $712.8 billion), or 21.0%. Commercial Paper (CP) totals $323.3 billion (up from $312.6 billion), or 9.2%, and Certificates of Deposit (CDs) total $237.8 billion (up from $226.9 billion), or 6.8%. The Other category (primarily Time Deposits) totals $130.2 billion (up from $123.7 billion), or 3.7%, and VRDNs account for $100.6 billion (down from $105.6B last month), or 2.9%.
Broken out into the SEC's more detailed categories, the CP totals were comprised of: $192.1 billion, or 5.5%, in Financial Company Commercial Paper; $58.5 billion or 1.7%, in Asset Backed Commercial Paper; and, $72.8 billion, or 2.1%, in Non-Financial Company Commercial Paper. The Repo totals were made up of: U.S. Treasury Repo ($662.6B, or 18.9%), U.S. Govt Agency Repo ($415.6B, or 11.9%), and Other Repo ($42.3B, or 1.2%).
The N-MFP Holdings summary for the 214 Prime Money Market Funds shows: CP holdings of $318.1 billion (up from $307.5 billion), or 31.8%; CD holdings of $237.8 billion (up from $226.9B), or 23.7%; Repo holdings of $172.4 billion (up from $138.7B), or 17.2%; Other (primarily Time Deposits) holdings of $86.6 billion (down from $138.7B), or 8.6%; Treasury holdings of $125.0 billion (down from $160.1B from last month), or 12.5%; Government Agency holdings of $55.1 billion (up from $52.1B), or 5.5%; and VRDN holdings of $6.6B (up from $6.4B), or 0.7%.
The SEC's more detailed categories show CP in Prime MMFs made up of: $192.1 billion (up from $186.9 billion), or 19.2%, in Financial Company Commercial Paper; $58.5 billion, or 5.8%, in Asset Backed Commercial Paper; and, $67.6 billion, or 6.7%, in Non-Financial Company Commercial Paper. The Repo totals include: U.S. Treasury Repo ($62.5B, or 6.2%), U.S. Govt Agency Repo ($67.7B, or 6.8%), and Other Repo ($42.3B, or 4.2%).
In other news, a press release sent to us yesterday, entitled, "Investor Cash Management Launches Patent-Pending, White-Label Cash Management Accounts Powered by DriveWealth," tells us, "Investor Cash Management (ICM) ... announced the launch of its patent-pending cash management accounts linked directly to specified SEC-registered securities such as government money market and ultra-short bond funds. The company has partnered with DriveWealth, LLC, a leader in global digital trading technology, to provide technology, brokerage and clearing services for the new white-label accounts."
The release explains, "Unlike conventional bank, high-yield savings and brokerage sweep accounts, the new ICM accounts provide an unmatched combination of higher rates -- more than 35 times the national bank average of six basis points -- and immediate, unrestricted liquidity. The accounts enable end-users to transform SEC-registered securities into digital currencies to make payments via debit card, ATM and online bill pay."
ICM CEO Fred Phillips comments, "Our mission is to support our distribution partners -- including asset managers, advisors and affinity partners -- by providing them with turnkey, customized white-label cash management accounts. These include a mobile app on Apple and Android, desktop portal, and investment card -- our patent-pending debit card linked to specified securities. In turn, our distribution partners can offer superior value-creating accounts to their clients and members."
DriveWealth CEO Robert Cortright adds, "We're very excited to partner with ICM and help fuel its new innovative accounts. DriveWealth is all about providing the infrastructure to allow our partners to create digital financial products for their retail customers. Our customizable suite of APIs enables ICM to build its offering right on top of our infrastructure in a way that provides a seamless experience to the end user."
The press release also quotes, Morningstar founder and executive chairman Joe Mansueto, a "significant investor in and advisor to ICM," "ICM's unique technology eliminates friction -- transaction costs, overwhelming choice, lack of liquidity -- to enable our distribution partners to convert savers into investors, and to enable investors to obtain far better returns on their assets."
While we're not familiar with ICM, Drivewealth or any of the principals, there have been a series of "Fin-tech" launches in the money market space since late last year. See the following Crane Data News and Link of the Day stories for more: "Wealthfront Cash Brings in $1 Billion" (4/29/19), "Wealthfront Cash Targets Deposits" (2/20/19), "MarketWatch Has More on Robinhood" (1/3/19), "SIPC Concerns About Robinhood" (12/17/18), "Robinhood Stealing Millennial's Cash" (12/14/18).
The ICM website shows the current rate at 2.30%, but it doesn't specify which funds are used for the underlying investments. Like other new fin-tech entrants in the cash space, they seem a little fuzzy on the details of whether the account is a money market mutual fund, money market deposit account or something else entirely.
