Crane Data's latest monthly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics will be sent out Wednesday, and we'll be writing our regular monthly update on the new Dec. 31 data for Thursday's News. But we also uploaded a separate and broader Portfolio Holdings data set based on the SEC's Form N-MFP filings on Tuesday. (We continue to merge the two series, and the N-MFP version is now available via our Portfolio Holdings file listings to Money Fund Wisdom subscribers.) Our new N-MFP summary, with data as of Dec. 31, includes holdings information from 991 money funds (down 1 from last month), representing assets of (a record) $5.212 trillion (up from $5.147 trillion). Prime MMFs now total $1.043 trillion, or 20.0% of the total. We review the new N-MFP data, and we also look at our revised MMF expense data, which shows charged expenses and money fund revenues down marginally in December.
Our latest Form N-MFP Summary for All Funds taxable and tax-exempt) shows Repurchase Agreement (Repo) holdings in money market funds increased to $2.977 trillion (from $2.707 trillion), or 57.1% of all assets. Treasury holdings totaled $1.067 trillion (down from $1.171 trillion), or 20.5% of all holdings, and Government Agency securities totaled $579.8 billion (down from $600.1 billion), or 11.1%. Holdings of Treasuries, Government agencies and Repo (almost all of which is backed by Treasuries and agencies) combined total $4.624 trillion, or a massive 88.7% of all holdings.
Commercial paper (CP) totals $253.7 billion (down from $270.9 billion), or 4.9% of all holdings, and the Other category (primarily Time Deposits) totals $100.2 billion (down from $160.7 billion), or 1.9%. Certificates of Deposit (CDs) total $149.7 billion (down from $154.0 billion), 2.9%, and VRDNs account for $84.7 billion (up from $83.1 billion last month), or 1.6% of money fund securities.
Broken out into the SEC's more detailed categories, the CP totals were comprised of: $170.9 billion, or 3.3%, in Financial Company Commercial Paper; $43.3 billion or 0.8%, in Asset Backed Commercial Paper; and, $39.5 billion, or 0.8%, in Non-Financial Company Commercial Paper. The Repo totals were made up of: U.S. Treasury Repo ($2.604 trillion, or 50.0%), U.S. Govt Agency Repo ($323.3B, or 6.2%) and Other Repo ($49.7B, or 1.0%).
The N-MFP Holdings summary for the Prime Money Market Funds shows: CP holdings of $247.7 billion (down from $265.6 billion), or 23.7%; Repo holdings of $477.4 billion (up from $367.3 billion), or 45.8%; Treasury holdings of $32.8 billion (down from $42.0 billion), or 3.1%; CD holdings of $149.7 billion (down from $154.0 billion), or 14.4%; Other (primarily Time Deposits) holdings of $62.0 billion (down from $119.8 billion), or 5.9%; Government Agency holdings of $67.4 billion (down from $79.0 billion), or 6.5% and VRDN holdings of $6.4 billion (up from $6.3 billion), or 0.6%.
The SEC's more detailed categories show CP in Prime MMFs made up of: $170.9 billion (down from $178.7 billion), or 16.4%, in Financial Company Commercial Paper; $43.3 billion (up from $40.8 billion), or 4.2%, in Asset Backed Commercial Paper; and $33.5 billion (down from $46.1 billion), or 3.2%, in Non-Financial Company Commercial Paper. The Repo totals include: U.S. Treasury Repo ($380.1 billion, or 36.4%), U.S. Govt Agency Repo ($47.7 billion, or 4.6%), and Other Repo ($49.7 billion, or 4.8%).
In related news, money fund charged expense ratios (Exp%) were a tad lower in December, dropping 1 basis point from the prior month (after jumping earlier in 2022). Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index and Crane Money Fund Average were 0.26% and 0.38%, respectively, as of Dec. 31, 2022. Crane Data revises its monthly expense data and gross yield information after the SEC updates its latest Form N-MFP data the morning of the 6th business day of the new month. (They posted this info Tuesday morning, so we revised our monthly MFI XLS spreadsheet and historical craneindexes.xlsx averages file to reflect the latest expenses, gross yields, portfolio composition and maturity breakout yesterday.) Visit our "Content" page for the latest files.
Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index, a simple average of the 100 largest taxable money funds, shows an average charged expense ratio of 0.26%, down 1 bp from last month's level (18 bps higher than 12/31/21's 0.08%). The average is roughly back at the level (0.27%) as it was on Dec. 31, 2019, so we estimate that funds are now charging normal expenses (but starting to waive some fees for competitive purposes). The Crane Money Fund Average, a simple average of all taxable MMFs, showed a charged expense ratio of 0.38% as of Dec. 31, 2022, down 1 bp from the month prior and now slightly below the 0.40% at year-end 2019.
Prime Inst MFs expense ratios (annualized) average 0.32% (unchanged from last month), Government Inst MFs expenses average 0.27% (down 1 bp from last month), Treasury Inst MFs expenses average 0.30% (down 1 bp from last month). Treasury Retail MFs expenses currently sit at 0.53%, (up 1 bp from last month), Government Retail MFs expenses yield 0.54% (up 1 bp from last month). Prime Retail MF expenses averaged 0.50% (unchanged from last month). Tax-exempt expenses were down 1 bp to 0.40% on average.
Gross 7-day yields rose again during the month ended Dec. 31, 2022. The Crane Money Fund Average, which includes all taxable funds tracked by Crane Data (currently 747), shows a 7-day gross yield of 4.26%, up 44 bps from the prior month. The Crane Money Fund Average was 1.72% at the end of 2019, 0.15% at the end of 2020 and 0.09% at the end of 2021. Our Crane 100's 7-day gross yield was up 43 bps, ending the month at 4.19%.
According to our revised MFI XLS and Crane Index numbers, we now estimate that annualized revenue for all money funds is $13.527 billion (as of 12/31/22). Our estimated annualized revenue totals decreased from $13.550B last month but are up from $13.226B two months ago. Revenue levels are still more than four times larger than May's record-low $2.927B level. Charged expenses and gross yields are driven by a number of variables, but revenues should remain relatively flat as we enter a seasonally weak period for assets.
