News Archives: April, 2026
Crane Data's April Money Fund Portfolio Holdings, with data as of March 31, 2026, show that holdings of Treasuries increased while Repo declined. Money market securities held by Taxable U.S. money funds (tracked by Crane Data) decreased by $103.0 billion to $8.075 trillion in March, after increasing $113.2 billion in February, but decreasing $54.6 billion in January. Holdings assets increased $231.8 billion in December, $134.3 billion in November, $158.4 billion in October, $56.1 billion in September, $166.6 billion in August, $17.6 billion in July, $84.0 billion in June and $72.0 billion in May. They decreased by $73.8 billion last April. Treasuries, the largest portfolio composition segment, inched higher by $19.2 billion. Repo, the second largest segment, decreased $69.4 billion in March. Agencies were the third largest segment, and CP remained fourth, ahead of CDs, Other/Time Deposits and VRDNs. Below, we review our Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics. (Visit our Content center to download, or contact us to request our latest Portfolio Holdings reports.)
Among taxable money funds, Treasury securities increased $19.2 billion (0.6%) to $3.420 trillion, or 42.4% of holdings, after increasing $26.8 billion in February, decreasing $135.2 billion in January, but increasing $44.8 billion in December, $67.4 billion in November, and $180.5 billion in October. Repurchase Agreements (repo) fell by $69.4 billion (-2.3%) to $2.923 trillion, or 36.2% of holdings, in March, after increasing $43.5 billion in February and decreasing $33.5 billion in January. Repo increased $156.0 billion in December and $69.5 billion in November, but decreased $6.0 billion in October. Government Agency Debt was flat (down $2.6 billion), or -0.2%, to $1.093 trillion, or 13.5% of holdings. Agencies increased $28.4 billion in February, $60.5 billion in January, and $22.9 billion in December. Repo, Treasuries and Agency holdings now total $7.436 trillion, representing 92.1% of all taxable holdings.
Money fund holdings of CP and CDs fell while Other (mainly Time Deposits) also declined in March. Commercial Paper (CP) decreased $23.3 billion (-7.4%) to $291.1 billion, or 3.6% of holdings. CP holdings decreased $4.3 billion in February, increased $39.3 billion in January, and decreased $26.7 billion in December. Certificates of Deposit (CDs) decreased $4.5 billion (-2.2%) to $199.9 billion, or 2.5% of taxable assets. CDs decreased $2.5 billion in February, increased $23.2 billion in January, and decreased $0.7 billion in December. Other holdings, primarily Time Deposits, decreased $22.9 billion (-14.9%) to $131.4 billion, or 1.6% of holdings, after increasing $21.0 billion in February, decreasing $8.7 billion in January, and increasing $34.5 billion in December. VRDNs increased to $16.9 billion, or 0.2% of assets. (Note: This total is VRDNs for taxable funds only. We will post our Tax Exempt MMF holdings separately Monday around noon.)
Prime money fund assets tracked by Crane Data decreased to $1.374 trillion, or 17.0% of taxable money funds' $8.075 trillion total. Among Prime money funds, CDs represent 14.5% (down from 14.8% a month ago), while Commercial Paper accounted for 21.1% (down from 22.8% a month ago). The CP totals are comprised of: Financial Company CP, which makes up 13.0% of total holdings, Asset-Backed CP, which accounts for 6.4%, and Non-Financial Company CP, which makes up 1.7%. Prime funds also hold 0.7% in US Govt Agency Debt, 12.6% in US Treasury Debt, 18.2% in US Treasury Repo, 1.5% in Other Instruments, 6.1% in Non-Negotiable Time Deposits, 10.6% in Other Repo, 13.2% in US Government Agency Repo and 1.0% in VRDNs.
Government money fund portfolios totaled $4.353 trillion (53.9% of all MMF assets), down from $4.450 trillion in February, while Treasury money fund assets totaled another $2.320 trillion (28.7%), down from $2.323 trillion the prior month. Government money fund portfolios were made up of 24.8% US Govt Agency Debt, 17.8% US Government Agency Repo, 32.9% US Treasury Debt, 24.0% in US Treasury Repo, 0.3% in Other Instruments. Treasury money funds were comprised of 77.3% US Treasury Debt and 22.6% in US Treasury Repo. Government and Treasury funds combined now total $6.674 trillion, or 82.7% of all taxable money fund assets.
European-affiliated holdings (including repo) decreased by $109.6 billion in March to $610.9 billion; their share of holdings fell to 7.6% from last month's 8.8%. Eurozone-affiliated holdings decreased to $438.5 billion from last month's $502.1 billion; they now account for 5.4% of overall taxable money fund holdings. Asia & Pacific related holdings were down at $308.6 billion (3.8% of the total) from last month's $334.0 billion. Americas related holdings increased to $7.151 trillion from last month's $7.117 trillion; they now represent 88.6% of holdings.
The overall taxable fund Repo totals were made up of: US Treasury Repurchase Agreements (down $21.3 billion, or -1.2%, to $1.817 trillion, or 22.5% of assets); US Government Agency Repurchase Agreements (down $52.5 billion, or -5.2%, to $957.7 billion, or 11.9% of total holdings), and Other Repurchase Agreements (up $4.4 billion, or 3.1%, to $147.8 billion, or 1.8% of holdings). The Commercial Paper totals were comprised of Financial Company Commercial Paper (down $10.7 billion to $179.1 billion, or 2.2% of assets), Asset-Backed Commercial Paper (down $4.1 billion to $88.2 billion, or 1.1%), and Non-Financial Company Commercial Paper (down $8.5 billion to $23.8 billion, or 0.3%).
The 20 largest Issuers to taxable money market funds as of March 31, 2026, include: the US Treasury ($3.420T, 40.7%), Fixed Income Clearing Corp ($1.249T, 9.7%), Federal Home Loan Bank ($755.1B, 9.1%), JP Morgan ($328.5B, 2.8%), RBC ($218.8B, 2.7%), Federal Farm Credit Bank ($209.6B, 3.5%), Wells Fargo ($175.2B, 1.8%), Citi ($167.2B, 1.8%), BNP Paribas ($152.9B, 1.9%), Bank of America ($100.9B, 2.2%), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp ($75.5B, 0.7%), Credit Agricole ($75.1B, 1.6%), Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp ($68.4B, 0.9%), Barclays PLC ($59.7B, 0.7%), Bank of Montreal ($58.8B, 0.9%), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce ($58.4B, 0.7%), Goldman Sachs ($58.0B, 1.1%), Toronto-Dominion Bank ($58.0B, 1.1%), Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc ($55.9B, 0.9%) and the Federal National Mortgage Association ($55.0B, 0.7%).
In the repo space, the 10 largest Repo counterparties (dealers) with the amount of repo outstanding and market share (among the money funds we track) include: Fixed Income Clearing Corp ($1.228T, 42.0%), JP Morgan ($316.9B, 10.8%), RBC ($176.2B, 6.0%), Wells Fargo ($165.4B, 5.7%), Citi ($163.0B, 5.6%), BNP Paribas ($145.7B, 5.0%), Bank of America ($70.2B, 2.4%), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp ($61.2B, 2.1%), Credit Agricole ($60.8B, 2.1%) and Goldman Sachs ($55.4B, 1.9%).
The largest users of the $6.4 billion in Fed RRP include: UBS Prime Fund ($2.9B), UBS Select Treasury Fund ($2.0B), UBS RMA Govt MM ($0.6B), Columbia Short-Term Cash Fund ($0.6B), Principal Government MM ($0.2B), UBS Limited Purpose Cash Inv Fund ($0.2B), Cavanal Hill Govt Svc MM ($0.0B) and Cavanal Hill US Treas ($0.0B).
The 10 largest issuers of "credit" -- CDs, CP and Other securities (including Time Deposits and Notes) combined -- include: RBC ($42.7B, 7.8%), Toronto-Dominion Bank ($37.5B, 6.9%), Bank of America ($30.7B, 5.6%), Bank of Montreal ($22.7B, 4.2%), Fixed Income Clearing Corp ($21.4B, 3.9%), Barclays PLC ($21.3B, 3.9%), Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd ($20.8B, 3.8%), ING Bank ($20.1B, 3.7%), Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc ($17.1B, 3.1%) and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank ($16.9B, 3.1%).
The 10 largest CD issuers include: Toronto-Dominion Bank ($17.8B, 8.9%), Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank ($13.9B, 7.0%), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp ($12.3B, 6.2%), Barclays PLC ($11.9B, 6.0%), Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc ($11.3B, 5.7%), Bank of America ($11.0B, 5.5%), Wells Fargo ($9.8B, 4.9%), Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd ($9.6B, 4.8%), Bank of Nova Scotia ($9.5B, 4.8%) and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce ($8.7B, 4.3%).
The 10 largest CP issuers (we include affiliated ABCP programs) include: RBC ($24.1B, 9.1%), Toronto-Dominion Bank ($18.2B, 6.9%), Bank of Montreal ($14.6B, 5.5%), JP Morgan ($11.6B, 4.4%), National Bank of Canada ($9.1B, 3.4%), Barclays PLC ($8.9B, 3.4%), Bank of America ($7.1B, 2.7%), Northcross Capital Management ($6.9B, 2.6%), UBS AG ($6.5B, 2.5%) and Westpac Banking Corp ($6.4B, 2.4%).
The largest increases among Issuers include: Fixed Income Clearing Corp (up $79.7B to $1.249T), the US Treasury (up $19.2B to $3.420T), JP Morgan (up $8.5B to $328.5B), the Federal Farm Credit Bank (up $7.1B to $209.6B), the Federal National Mortgage Association (up $5.2B to $55.0B), UBS AG (up $3.7B to $8.8B), Svenska Handelsbanken (up $1.3B to $11.0B), Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (up $1.1B to $7.7B), Citi (up $1.0B to $167.2B) and Westpac Banking Corp (up $0.6B to $8.6B).
The largest decreases among Issuers of money market securities (including Repo) in March were shown by: Barclays PLC (down $31.8B to $59.7B), Societe Generale (down $20.1B to $38.8B), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp (down $14.0B to $75.5B), the Federal Home Loan Bank (down $12.7B to $755.1B), BNP Paribas (down $9.5B to $152.9B), Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (down $9.1B to $10.9B), Bank of America (down $8.4B to $100.9B), Credit Agricole (down $7.6B to $75.1B), BNY Mellon (down $6.5B to $14.3B) and Wells Fargo (down $6.3B to $175.2B).
The United States remained the largest segment of country-affiliations; it represents 83.1% of holdings, or $6.710 trillion. Canada (5.5%, $441.2B) was in second place, while France (3.9%, $312.3B) ranked third. Japan (3.0%, $238.1B) occupied fourth place. The United Kingdom (1.6%, $126.9B) remained in fifth place. Australia (0.6%, $49.7B) was sixth, followed by Netherlands (0.6%, $46.7B), Germany (0.5%, $43.3B), Spain (0.4%, $35.2B), and Sweden (0.3%, $22.7B). (Note: Crane Data attributes Treasury and Government repo to the dealer's parent country of origin, though money funds themselves "look-through" and consider these U.S. government securities. All money market securities must be U.S. dollar-denominated.)
As of March 31, 2026, Taxable money funds held 46.6% (up from 45.9%) of their assets in securities maturing Overnight, and another 9.7% maturing in 2-7 days (down from 10.7%). Thus, 56.4% in total matures in 1-7 days. Another 11.7% matures in 8-30 days, while 9.7% matures in 31-60 days. Note that over three-quarters, or 77.8% of securities, mature in 60 days or less, the dividing line for use of amortized cost accounting under SEC regulations. The next bucket, 61-90 days, holds 5.5% of taxable securities, while 10.5% matures in 91-180 days, and just 6.2% matures beyond 181 days.
Crane Data's latest monthly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics will be sent out Friday, and we'll be writing our regular monthly update on the new March data for Monday's News. But we also already uploaded a separate and broader Portfolio Holdings data set based on the SEC's Form N-MFP filings on Thursday. (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 March 31, includes holdings information from 997 money funds (up 4 from last month), representing assets of $8.127 trillion (down from $8.327 trillion a month ago). Prime MMFs fell to $1.251 trillion (down from $1.263 trillion), or 15.4% of the total. We review the new N-MFP data and we also look at our revised MMF expense data, which shows charged expenses were mostly flat and money fund revenues fell to $21.6 billion (annualized) in March.
Our latest Form N-MFP Summary for All Funds (taxable and tax-exempt) shows Treasuries and Repurchase Agreements (Repo) remain the largest types of portfolio holdings in money market funds. Treasury holdings in money market funds now total $3.402 trillion (up from $3.386 trillion), or 41.9% of all assets, while Repo holdings fell to $2.836 trillion (down from $3.001 trillion), or 34.9% of all holdings. Government Agency securities total $1.097 trillion (down from $1.099 trillion), or 13.5%. Holdings of Treasuries, Government agencies and Repo (almost all of which is backed by Treasuries and agencies) combined total $7.336 trillion, or a massive 90.3% of all holdings.
The Other category (primarily Time Deposits) totals $141.1 billion (down from $163.9 billion), or 1.7%, and Commercial Paper (CP) totals $301.2 billion (down from $325.7 billion), or 3.7% of all holdings. Certificates of Deposit (CDs) total $199.7 billion (down from $204.2 billion), 2.5%, and VRDNs account for $149.8 billion (up from $146.2 billion), or 1.8% of money fund securities.
Broken out into the SEC's more detailed categories, the CP totals were comprised of: $178.8 billion, or 2.2%, in Financial Company Commercial Paper; $88.3 billion, or 1.1%, in Asset Backed Commercial Paper; and $34.1 billion, or 0.4%, in Non-Financial Company Commercial Paper. The Repo totals were made up of: U.S. Treasury Repo ($1.765 trillion, or 21.7%), U.S. Govt Agency Repo ($924.0 billion, or 11.4%) and Other Repo ($146.8 billion, or 1.8%).
The N-MFP Holdings summary for the Prime Money Market Funds shows: CP holdings of $259.4 billion (down from $277.3 billion), or 20.7%; Repo holdings of $531.7 billion (up from $518.0 billion), or 42.5%; Treasury holdings of $170.6 billion (up from $156.5 billion), or 13.6%; CD holdings of $171.3 billion (down from $177.1 billion), or 13.7%; Other (primarily Time Deposits) holdings of $97.2 billion (down from $114.0 billion), or 7.8%; Government Agency holdings of $8.3 billion (up from $8.1 billion), or 0.7%; and VRDN holdings of $12.4 billion (up from $12.0 billion), or 1.0%.
The SEC's more detailed categories show CP in Prime MMFs made up of: $162.1 billion (down from $171.3 billion), or 13.0%, in Financial Company Commercial Paper; $75.6 billion (down from $76.6 billion), or 6.0%, in Asset Backed Commercial Paper; and $21.8 billion (down from $29.4 billion), or 1.7%, in Non-Financial Company Commercial Paper. The Repo totals include: U.S. Treasury Repo ($226.7 billion, or 18.1%), U.S. Govt Agency Repo ($172.1 billion, or 13.8%), and Other Repo ($133.0 billion, or 10.6%).
In related news, money fund charged expense ratios (Exp%) were mostly flat in March. Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index and Crane Money Fund Average were 0.26% and 0.36%, respectively, as of March 31, 2026. 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 Thursday 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.) 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% unchanged from last month's level (also 18 bps higher than 12/31/21's 0.08%). The Crane Money Fund Average, a simple average of all taxable MMFs, showed a charged expense ratio of 0.36% as of March 31, 2026, down 1 bp from the month prior and slightly below the 0.40% at year-end 2019.
Crane Data's latest monthly Money Fund Market Share rankings show assets down among the largest U.S. money fund complexes in March, after being up in February and mixed in January. Assets have increased in 19 of the past 21 months (only April 2025 and March 2026 saw declines). Money market fund assets fell by $56.6 billion, or -0.7%, last month to $8.193 trillion. Total MMF assets have increased by $76.2 billion, or 0.9%, over the past 3 months, and they've increased by $861.1 billion, or 11.7%, over the past 12 months. The largest increases among the 25 largest managers last month were seen by Fidelity, First American, BlackRock, Schwab and Allspring, which grew assets by $9.3 billion, $9.3B, $6.5B, $5.9B and $5.1B, respectively. Declines in March were seen by SSIM, Vanguard, Goldman Sachs, Federated Hermes and BNY Dreyfus, which decreased by $16.2 billion, $13.9B, $13.1B, $10.3B and $9.1B, respectively. 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. We review the latest market share totals, and look at money fund yields, which were lower in March.
Over the past year through Mar. 31, 2026, Fidelity (up $166.8B, or 10.9%), JPMorgan (up $134.0B, or 17.3%), BlackRock (up $102.7B, or 16.8%), Vanguard (up $68.8B, or 10.2%) and Schwab (up $60.0B, or 9.3%) were the largest gainers. American Funds, First American, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley and Vanguard had the largest asset increases over the past 3 months, rising by $26.6B, $18.6B, $14.8B, $12.1B and $12.0B, respectively. The largest decline over 12 months was seen by: DWS (down $2.9B), Invesco (down $1.4B) and Wilmington Trust (down $19M). The largest declines over 3 months included: BNY Dreyfus (down $11.3B), Goldman Sachs (down $8.7B), Federated Hermes (down $5.9B), SSIM (down $5.9B) and DWS (down $4.4B).
Our latest domestic U.S. Money Fund Family Rankings show that Fidelity Investments remains the largest money fund manager with $1.694 trillion, or 20.7% of all assets. Fidelity was up $9.3B in March, up $14.8B over 3 mos., and up $166.8B over 12 months. JPMorgan ranked second with $908.9 billion, or 11.1% market share (down $2.4B, up $8.4B and up $134.0B for the past 1-month, 3-mos. and 12-mos., respectively). Vanguard ranked in third place with $744.7 billion, or 9.1% of assets (down $13.9B, up $12.0B and up $68.8B). BlackRock ranked fourth with $712.8 billion, or 8.7% market share (up $6.5B, down $3.1B and up $102.7B), while Schwab was the fifth largest MMF manager with $701.5 billion, or 8.6% of assets (up $5.9B, up $7.2B and up $60.0B for the past 1-month, 3-mos. and 12-mos.).
Federated Hermes was in sixth place with $519.6 billion, or 6.3% (down $10.3B, down $5.9B and up $35.9B), while Goldman Sachs was in seventh place with $469.5 billion, or 5.7% of assets (down $13.1B, down $8.7B and up $23.5B). Morgan Stanley ($336.7B, or 4.1%) was in eighth place (down $1.9B, up $12.1B and up $42.7B), followed by BNY Dreyfus ($330.6B, or 4.0%; down $9.1B, down $11.3B and up $42.2B). SSIM was in 10th place ($297.7B, or 3.6%; down $16.2B, down $5.9B and up $56.8B).
The 11th through 20th-largest U.S. money fund managers (in order) include: Allspring ($233.5B, or 2.9%), First American ($205.5B, or 2.5%), Northern ($198.4B, or 2.4%), Invesco ($166.3B, or 2.0%), American Funds ($161.7B, or 2.0%), UBS ($121.6B, or 1.5%), T Rowe Price ($53.4B, or 0.7%), HSBC ($52.9B, or 0.6%), Franklin Templeton ($49.6B, or 0.6%) and DWS ($35.2B, or 0.4%). Crane Data currently tracks 58 U.S. MMF managers, unchanged from last month.
When European and "offshore" money fund assets -- those domiciled in places like Ireland, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands -- are included, the top 10 managers are the same as the domestic list, except: BlackRock moves up to the No. 3 spot and Vanguard moves down to the No. 4 spot. Goldman Sachs moves up to the No. 6 spot, while Federated Hermes moves down to the No. 7 spot. 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 ($1.719 trillion), JP Morgan ($1.200 trillion), BlackRock ($1.073 trillion), Vanguard ($744.7B) and Schwab ($701.5B). Goldman Sachs ($644.9B) was in sixth, Federated Hermes ($532.8B) was seventh, followed by Morgan Stanley ($448.3B), Dreyfus/BNY ($397.2B) and SSIM ($352.1B), 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 3/31/26, shows that yields were down in March across most of the Crane Money Fund Indexes. The Crane Money Fund Average, which includes all taxable funds covered by Crane Data (currently 728), was 3.37% (down 1 bp) for the 7-Day Yield (annualized, net) Average, the 30-Day Yield was down 2 bps to 3.37%. The MFA's Gross 7-Day Yield was at 3.74% (down 1 bp), and the Gross 30-Day Yield was down 2 bps at 3.74%. (Gross yields will be revised once we download the SEC's Form N-MFP data for 3/31/26 on Thursday.)
Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index shows an average 7-Day (Net) Yield of 3.48% (down 1 bp) and an average 30-Day Yield at 3.48% (down 2 bps). The Crane 100 shows a Gross 7-Day Yield of 3.74% (down 1 bp), and a Gross 30-Day Yield of 3.74% (down 2 bps). Our Prime Institutional MF Index (7-day) yielded 3.59% (down 1 bp) as of March 31. The Crane Govt Inst Index was at 3.47% (down 2 bps) and the Treasury Inst Index was at 3.45% (up 1 bp). Thus, the spread between Prime funds and Treasury funds is 14 basis points, and the spread between Prime funds and Govt funds is 12 basis points. The Crane Prime Retail Index yielded 3.35% (down 2 bps), while the Govt Retail Index was 3.19% (down 1 bp), the Treasury Retail Index was 3.21% (down 1 bp from the month prior). The Crane Tax Exempt MF Index yielded 2.12% (up 35 bps) at the end of March.
Gross 7-Day Yields for these indexes to end March were: Prime Inst 3.83% (down 1 bp), Govt Inst 3.71% (down 2 bps), Treasury Inst 3.72% (down 1 bp), Prime Retail 3.83% (down 2 bps), Govt Retail 3.72% (down 1 bp) and Treasury Retail 3.73% (down 1 bp). The Crane Tax Exempt Index rose to 2.51% (up 35 bps). The Crane 100 MF Index returned on average 0.29% over 1-month, 0.87% over 3-months, 0.87% YTD, 3.96% over the past 1-year, 4.64% over 3-years annualized), 3.24% over 5-years, and 2.10% over 10-years.
The total number of funds, including taxable and tax-exempt, was down 1 in March at 839. There are currently 728 taxable funds, down 1 from the previous month, and 111 tax-exempt money funds (unchanged from last month). (Contact us if you'd like to see our latest MFI XLS, Crane Indexes or Market Share report.)
The April issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Wednesday morning, features the articles: "JPM: Corporates Driving MMF Asset Gains; A Look at Fed Z.1," which reviews corporate cash balances and their impact on money fund growth; "Bond Fund Symposium in Boston: Ho & Schneider," which quotes from our recent ultra-short bond fund conference; and "Fidelity Reserves Digital, 5th Stablecoin Reserve Fund," which discusses the latest Stablecoin Reserves money market funds. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Wednesday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 3/31/26 data. Our April Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Friday, April 10, and our April Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Wednesday, April 15.
MFI's "Corporates" story says, "A recent 'Short-Term Fixed Income' from J.P. Morgan Securities' featured a section titled, 'Corporates maintain large liquidity portfolios, and even larger cash balances.' It states, 'As expected, corporations continue to maintain large liquidity portfolios. Based on balance sheet data for S&P 500 non-financial companies, we estimate liquidity portfolio balances as of 4Q25 registered $2.6tn, an increase of $119bn QoQ and $257bn YoY. At these levels, they surpass even the prior peak of $2.5tn in the months after Covid in 2020.'"
The story states, "The brief continues, 'Notably, cash and cash equivalents rose materially, even as investment securities drove most of the increase in liquidity portfolios. We estimate aggregate cash and cash equivalents rose by nearly $117bn last year, reaching $1.38tn by 4Q25.... This marks one of the larger annual increases in cash and cash equivalents, though still behind what we saw in 2020 and 2023. [A]s far as cash levels go, ... this will be the highest amount of cash and cash equivalents corporations have held in at least a decade.'"
We write in the "Bond Fund Symposium Boston," story, "We recently hosted our latest Crane's Bond Fund Symposium in Boston, which brings together ultra-short bond fund managers and securities issuers. The keynote talk, 'Ultra‐Short Bond Funds: Spring Break,' featured J.P. Morgan Securities' Teresa Ho and PIMCO's Jerome Schneider. The latter comments, 'First of all, thanks for being here. Once again, it's obviously a great forum to see friends. And it's important, not just because of where we are today, and we can talk about the factors of where the economy is going, and waking up every moment to see where rates are going, things like that. But ... what we do here is probably described as calm amongst a storm of uncertainty ... [within] the broader landscape.'"
It continues, "He tells us, 'So, my [role at] PIMCO is running short-term low duration strategies in addition to some of our portable alpha strategies.... From that vantage point, I think about the best way to optimize cash and ... shorter duration type of fixed income allocations.' (Note: Thanks again to those who supported Bond Fund Symposium! Attendees and Crane Data subscribers may access the conference binder, Powerpoints and recordings via our 'Bond Fund Symposium 2026 Download Center.')"
Our "Fidelity Reserves" article says, "Fidelity Investments is the 5th money fund manager to launch a Stablecoin Reserves money market fund, following BlackRock's Circle Treasury Reserves, and Stablecoin Reserves offerings from State Street, Goldman Sachs and BNY. A Registration Statement tells us, 'Fidelity Reserves Digital Fund seeks to obtain as high a level of current in come as is consistent with the preservation of capital and liquidity.' (See our March 30 News, 'Arca Capital Management Files for US Treasury Money Mkt Digital Fund,' which says, 'Arca Capital Management filed a Form N-1A registration statement for Arca U.S. Treasury Money Market Digital Fund.')"
It continues, "Fidelity Reserves Digital's Principal Investment Strategies include: 'Investing only in U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds with a remaining maturity of, or issued with a maturity of, 93 days or less, cash, and overnight repurchase agreements fully collateralized by U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds, and other registered government money market funds; Investing only in eligible reserve assets that payment stablecoin issuers are permitted to maintain under the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act ('GENIUS Act') and any regulations adopted thereunder; and, Investing in compliance with industry-standard regulatory requirements for money market funds for the quality, maturity, liquidity, and diversification of investments."
MFI also includes the News brief, "MMFs Hit Record $8.279 Tril., Then Dip in Late March. Money market mutual fund assets jumped to a record high of $8.279 trillion on 3/18, according to our Money Fund Intelligence Daily. But assets then fell. They declined by $56.6 billion in March to $8.201 trillion."
Another News brief, "Fed Holds Rates at 3.5-3.75%." It says, "The Federal Reserve's latest FOMC Statement says, 'The Committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 3.5 to 3.75%.' Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index inched lower to 3.48% in March."
A third News brief, "Reuters: War and Record MMF Assets," says, "Reuters writes 'Investors drive US money market fund assets to records as war-related risk fears multiply.' The piece says, 'As the Iran conflict intensifies, the spike in oil prices and rising inflation fears are spurring investors to ditch stocks as too risky and shun traditional safe havens such as gold in favor of money market funds. The result: assets in those ultra-short-term and ultra-safe Treasury funds are now hovering around $8 trillion, according to calculations from providers such as the Investment Company Institute, JPMorgan Chase and Crane Data.'"
A sidebar, "Donahue Talks Tokenized," says, "Federated Hermes' Chris Donahue spoke recently at the '2026 RBC Capital Markets Global Financial Institutions Conference,' and made a number of comments on tokenization. He says, 'The BNY, Goldman deal is where we have our regular fund. BNY makes a token. The token invests, in effect, money in the fund, so the money fund's the same as it was five minutes ago, and it participates in Goldman's platform. That's another whole deal. Archax is one we're doing in Europe.... We have the structures inside to actually tokenize a money fund.'"
Our April MFI XLS, with March 31 data, shows total assets fell $56.6 billion to $8.201 trillion, after increasing $94.0 billion in February, $38.5 billion in January, $123.5 billion in December, $129.3 billion in November, $141.5 billion in October, $100.4 billion in September, $129.9 billion in August, $69.0 billion in July, $10.1 billion in June and jumping $90.3 billion in May. MMFs decreased $26.6 billion last April.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was down 1 bp at 3.37%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was down 1 bp at 3.48% in March. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 3.74% and 3.74%. Charged Expenses averaged 0.36% and 0.26% for the Crane MFA and the Crane 100. (We'll revise expenses once we upload the SEC's Form N-MFP data for 3/31/26 on Thursday, 4/9.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 41 days (up 1 day) and the Crane 100 WAM was up 1 day from the previous month at 43 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)
Money fund yields (7-day, annualized, simple, net) were unchanged at 3.47% on average during the week ended Thursday, April 2 (as measured by our Crane 100 Money Fund Index), after remaining unchanged the week prior. Fund yields haven't been below 3.5% since November 2022, and they are down from a recent high of 5.20% in November 2023. They should remain flat in coming days (and weeks) since the Fed left short-term rates unchanged three weeks ago. Yields were 3.58% on 12/31/25, 3.78% on 11/30, 3.90% on 10/31, 3.94% on 9/30, 4.11% on 8/31, 4.12% on 7/31, 4.13% on 6/30, 4.14% on 3/31/25 and 4.28% on average on 12/31/24. MMFs averaged 4.75% on 9/30/24, 5.10% on 6/28/24, 5.14% on 3/31/24 and 5.20% on 12/31/23.
The broader Crane Money Fund Average, which includes all taxable funds tracked by Crane Data (currently 682), shows a 7-day yield of 3.37%, unchanged in the week through Thursday. Prime Inst money fund yields were unchanged at 3.59% in the latest week. Government Inst MFs were up 1 bp at 3.47%. Treasury Inst MFs were unchanged at 3.43%. Treasury Retail MFs currently yield 3.20%, Government Retail MFs yield 3.19% and Prime Retail MFs yield 3.37%, Tax-exempt MF 7-day yields were down 6 bps to 2.04%.
Money market mutual fund assets have paused since hitting a record high of $8.280 trillion on March 18, according to our Money Fund Intelligence Daily. Assets have fallen $65.5 billion in the week through Thursday, and they've decreased by $11.5 billion in April month-to-date (through 4/2). MMF assets decreased by $49.3 billion in March, increased by $99.5 billion in February, $32.9 billion in January, $126.3 billion in December, $132.8 billion in November, $142.1 billion in October, $105.2 billion in September and $132.0 billion in August. They rose by $63.7 billion in July, $6.7 billion in June and $100.9 billion in May. But MMFs decreased $24.4 billion last April. Weighted average maturities were at 42 days for the Crane MFA and 44 days the Crane 100 Money Fund Index.
According to Monday's Money Fund Intelligence Daily, with data as of Thursday (4/2), just 163 money funds (out of 792 total) yield under 3.0% with $192.2 billion in assets, or 2.3%, while the vast majority (629) of funds yield between 3.00% and 3.99% ($7.988 trillion, or 97.7%). No funds yield over 4.0%. Our Brokerage Sweep Intelligence Index, an average of FDIC-insured cash options from major brokerages, was unchanged at 0.30%, after falling 1 basis point fifteen weeks prior. The latest Brokerage Sweep Intelligence, with data as of April 2, shows no changes over the past week. Four of the 10 major brokerages tracked by our BSI offer rates of 0.01% for balances of $100K (and lower tiers). These include: E*Trade, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Schwab.
In other news, Federated Hermes' Deborah Cunningham writes, "Make yourself at home," in her latest monthly commentary. She tells us, "In the liquidity space, the first quarter of the year typically sees outflows due largely to a reversal of year-end window-dressing, the corporate tax date on March 15 and preparation for individual tax payments in April. Not so this year.... Substantial assets poured into liquidity products in January and February, pushing industry money market assets to all-time highs in the week just before the [Iran] attacks."
Cunningham explains, "Thankfully, the reason for this was positive -- the attractive yields stemming from the elevated fed funds rate. For an asset class designed to seek stability of principal and ease of redemption, yields are still a main variable. The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate so aggressively in 2022 to counter spiking inflation, that even two years after it pivoted to easing, the target range is still attractive. In other words, cash is an asset class -- gaining favor on its own merits, rather than a counter to geopolitical upheaval or anxiety over stocks."
She asks "So the question is what happens when investors think the geopolitical environment has improved enough to rotate back to riskier assets like the stock market? Tradition says they will do just that, either looking to buy low or participate in the economic growth many analysts think will follow the conclusion of the Iran conflict. Some surely will. But we think some of the investors will be warmed by the current yields of money funds, take off their coats and stay awhile."
The Federated piece adds, "Time will tell, but the twist is that the war is likely to keep Fed policymakers on the sidelines longer. The December dot plot only projected one additional quarter-point cut this year, and that didn't halt the inflows. If the spike in oil prices causes inflation to do an about face, it's unlikely the Fed will move at all this year. If that keeps market-based money market yields close to where they are now, appetite should remain." (See also, Morningstar's "Short-Term Rates Remaining Higher for Longer Will Benefit Federated Hermes' Money Market Operations."
Finally, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Liberty Street Economics blog published, "The Fed Has Two Tools to Influence Money Market Conditions." It states, "The Federal Reserve's 2022-23 tightening cycle involved the use of two monetary policy tools: changes in administrative rates and changes in the size of its balance sheet. This post highlights the results of a recent Staff Report that explores how these tools affect money market conditions. Using confidential trade-level data, we find that both tools have significant effects on the pricing of funds sourced through repo. These results suggest that the Fed can manage how financing conditions are affected even as it influences economic conditions. For example, the Fed can lower its administrative rates to loosen economic conditions, while shrinking its balance sheet to maintain financing conditions in the money markets."
The blog tells us, "Our analysis focuses on Treasury repurchase agreements (repo), a critical financial market used to secure funding and provide liquidity, with an estimated size of over $5 trillion outstanding in the first half of 2024 (see the appendix of this white paper). Secured funding trades in the U.S. are often documented as repos, and within repo, trades involving Treasury securities are the dominant type. Using data on Treasury repo, then, provides a representative look at secured funding conditions in the U.S."
It comments, "The U.S. Treasury's Office of Financial Research's (OFR) centrally cleared repo collection provides such data. This collection captures most interdealer trading. Furthermore, a portion of dealer-to-client repo transactions are gathered through the central counterparty's Sponsored Service program, providing a window on pricing of trades between dealers and their mutual fund and hedge fund clients."
The post adds, "Dealers are the main intermediaries in secured funding markets, borrowing from cash-rich investors such as money market mutual funds and lending to levered clients such as hedge funds (see this comprehensive report on dealers' intermediary activities). The OFR data allow for the construction of the spreads charged by dealers to intermediate funds, as we observe the repo rate dealers' charge to lend funds to levered clients as well as the rates paid to borrow funds from mutual funds."
The Investment Company Institute published its weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report Thursday, which shows money fund assets increasing by $7.6 billion to $7.811 trillion, after decreasing by $53.0 billion the previous week and rising by $38.7 billion to a record high $7.856 trillion two weeks prior. Assets have risen in 22 of the last 28 weeks and 30 of the past 37 weeks. MMF assets are up by $779 billion, or 11.1%, over the past 52 weeks (through 4/1/26), with Institutional MMFs up $547 billion, or 13.2% and Retail MMFs up $232 billion, or 8.1%. Year-to-date in 2026, MMF assets are up by $78 billion, or 1.0%, with Institutional MMFs up $38 billion, or 0.8% and Retail MMFs up $39 billion, or 1.3%.
ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $7.58 billion to $7.81 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, April 1, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $7.38 billion and prime funds decreased by $1.80 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $2.00 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $0.3 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $7.3 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $6.418 trillion (82.2% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.246 trillion (16.0%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $146.1 billion (1.9%).
It explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $7.27 billion to $3.12 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $3.64 billion to $1.98 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.37 billion to $1.01 trillion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.26 billion to $132.23 billion." Retail assets account for 39.9% of the total, and Government Retail assets make up 63.4% of all Retail MMFs.
They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $312 million to $4.69 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $3.74 billion to $4.44 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $4.17 billion to $237.50 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $736 million to $13.87 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 60.1% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 94.6% of all institutional MMF totals.
According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have increased by $44 billion to $8.236 trillion month-to-date in April (as of 4/1), assets hit a record high on March 18 of $8.280 trillion. (Our asset series previous record high, $8.276 trillion, was set on 3/17/26.) Assets decreased by $49.3 billion in March, increased $99.5 billion in February, $32.9 billion in January, $126.3 billion in December, $132.8 billion in November, $142.1 billion in October, $105.2 billion in September and $132.0 billion in August. They rose $63.7 billion in July, $6.7 billion in June and $100.9 billion in May, but fell by $24.4 billion last April. Note that ICI's asset totals don't include a number of funds tracked by the SEC and Crane Data, so they're almost $400 billion lower than Crane's asset series.
In other news, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Financial Research (OFR) posted a blog that asks, "Who Participates in Repo?" They explain, "The U.S. repurchase agreement (repo) market links cash lenders to cash borrowers through short-term collateralized loans. This brief summarizes some facts about lenders and borrowers in the U.S. repo market using the new non-centrally cleared bilateral repo (NCCBR) data collection from the Office of Financial Research (OFR) combined with existing OFR transaction-level data. We quantify outstanding repo positions of financial institutions by type and identify which are net lenders versus net borrowers, within and across market segments."
The piece continues, "In H2 2025, total daily outstanding positions of both lenders and borrowers across all segments in the U.S. repo market averaged $12.5 trillion. Government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), money funds, and other investment funds lent nearly $3.5 trillion on net. On the opposite side, hedge funds borrowed more than $1.8 trillion on net. Broker-dealers and banks account for the majority of gross activity but hold small net positions except in the tri-party segment where they are large net borrowers."
It tells us, "Large financial institutions rely on the U.S. repurchase agreement (repo) market as a primary source of short-term funding, and repo rates provide a basis for financial market reference rates used to price consumer and business loans. The repo market has played a role during periods of market instability by serving as a source of liquidity and a channel for contagion during the 2007-08 financial crisis and the September 2019 market dislocation. Even so, market participants and regulators have had limited insight into repo market flows and positions, which has impeded their ability to measure and manage risk. This brief presents an entity-based view of repo market flows and positions in H2 2025 using transaction-level data that covers the entire market."
The OFR writes, "The underlying data is from three sources: tri-party repo settlement data collected by Bank of New York Mellon (BNY) (available from 2013), the Office of Financial Research (OFR) centrally cleared repo collection (available from 2018), and the OFR non-centrally cleared bilateral repo (NCCBR) data collection. The OFR began collecting NCCBR data from certain market participants in December 2024 and expanded the collection to a wider range of financial institutions in July 2025. The statistics presented in this brief are a snapshot of H2 2025, covering the first two quarters that data on the complete market are available. The tri-party, cleared, and NCCBR data contain the names of the financial companies or funds that were repo counterparties. These entity names were grouped into 11 types that represent common financial company and fund types."
They state, "Gross and net repo outstanding across all segments varies by entity type.... Financial companies that manage short-term investments like money funds tend to lend and use the repo market as a safe, short-term investment, whereas financial companies like hedge funds that pursue leveraged strategies are more likely to be net borrowers. Others participate on both sides of the market by serving as intermediaries between net lenders and net borrowers and/or by using the repo market to manage cash and borrow securities."
The piece adds, "Money funds are exclusively lenders and account for more than two-thirds or more than $2.9 trillion of net lending. Investment funds, such as mutual funds, private equity funds, venture capital funds, exchange traded funds, and other closed-end funds, are also typically net lenders in the data, as are repo accounts associated with nonbank asset managers but not identifiable as specific funds. Unlike money funds, however, these institutions sometimes borrow and likely use the repo market as a safe, short-term investment and to fund their own investments. GSEs which include Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and regional Federal Home Loan Banks nearly exclusively lend, with 97% of their gross repo outstanding being cash lending."
The article says, "Primary dealers and the banking arms of global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) account for the majority of this activity and appear to take positions similar to those of non-primary dealers and non-G-SIB banks. For more information, previous OFR research has described the strategies that dealers use in this market. The results in this brief complement and expand on these previous findings and show that banks are performing some of the same intermediary functions as dealers. Principal trading firms are active participants mostly in the NCCBR segment. They run nearly matched books and, similar to banks and broker-dealers, are slight net borrowers; 54% of their gross repo outstanding is borrowing."
Finally, it states, "Repo activity in the tri-party segment is dominated by money funds, broker-dealers, and banks. Cash flows mostly one-way from cash lenders to broker dealers and banks. Money funds lend about twice as much to broker-dealers than to banks. Other entities, mainly asset managers, mutual funds, pensions funds, other funds, and governments, also lend a substantial amount primarily to broker-dealers. Hedge funds are not material participants on either side of the tri-party market segment."
The Bank of England published a paper titled, "A simulation framework for sterling money market funds: estimating redemption capacity and evaluating liquidity requirements." The staff paper's summary says, "Money market funds (MMFs) aim to provide near-on-demand liquidity yet often hold assets that become hard to sell under stress, leaving them vulnerable to run-like redemptions. I build a simulation framework for sterling MMFs to estimate redemption capacity and failure probability across alternative redemption profiles and market-liquidity scenarios. Resilience of funds depends on both the timing of outflows and the effective liquidity of weekly liquid assets (WLA): front-loaded redemptions are most destabilising, and the benefit of asset sales shrinks as market depth thins. Removing the 30% WLA threshold effect – under which managers must consider measures to deter further redemptions – yields sizeable resilience gains by reducing cliff-edge behaviour. Under historically extreme shocks and without threshold effects, most resilience improvements come from holding WLA above the 30% regulatory minimum; in my simulations, gains concentrate around 40% WLA, with diminishing returns beyond."
Author Rishabh Kumar writes, "Money market funds (MMFs) aim to provide investors on-demand liquidity, often with same day or next-day access, while investing in instruments that can be difficult to liquidate quickly at par. That mismatch is a feature rather than a flaw: it is precisely what allows MMFs to earn a competitive yield. But it also makes them vulnerable to run dynamics especially during stress periods where investors might prefer cash. When redemptions rise abruptly, funds may be forced to generate cash by selling assets into stressed markets, potentially reinforcing price moves and tightening funding conditions. Because MMFs sit at the junction of short-term funding markets and cash management for non-financial corporations and financial institutions, disruptions can propagate beyond the sector and become a financial stability concern."
He continues, "Past episodes have illustrated these vulnerabilities in practice. During the March 2020 'dash for cash' (DFC) episode, funds with larger exposures to non-government assets, including U.S. Prime MMFs and EU Low Volatility Net Asset Value (LVNAV) funds, experienced substantial outflows. In the UK, the DFC episode triggered redemptions of roughly £25 billion (around 11% of sterling MMF assets), concentrated in EU-domiciled LVNAV funds (Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), 2023). Investors in need of liquidity made large MMF redemptions to raise cash quickly (Czech et al., 2021). The pattern echoes earlier stress episodes, including the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), when the Reserve Primary Fund 'broke the buck' after Lehman Brothers' default and the sector required extraordinary public backstops (McCabe, 2010; Bouveret, Martin, and McCabe, 2022)."
The paper tells us, "Regulatory reforms have tried to address these fragilities. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) 2010 MMF reforms and the European Union's (EU) 2017 Money Market Fund Regulation (MMFR) introduced liquidity management tools, minimum liquid-asset requirements, and constraints on portfolio composition (Bouveret, Martin, and McCabe, 2022). Yet recurring stress events suggest that liquidity mismatches remain a source of vulnerability for the sector. Moreover, the increase in interest rates from the 2020 pandemic-era lows introduced a separate tension: higher rates can reduce the market value of fixed-income holdings and interact with liquidity needs in stress. The Bank of England's Financial Stability in Focus highlights the potential for rate-driven valuation changes to intensify liquidity risks across non-bank financial institutions, including MMFs (Bank of England, 2023)."
It states, "A growing empirical literature documents MMF outflows and transmission channels during stress events. However, empirical work is necessarily backward-looking: it reflects realized outcomes under the institutional and policy conditions of a particular episode. In practice, those conditions may include use of emergency lending facilities and other central bank intervention that alter both investor behaviour and the liquidity of assets. This limits what can be inferred about MMF resilience under alternative market environments, different redemption paths, or counterfactual policy designs."
The piece explains, "This paper takes a complementary approach. I develop a forward-looking simulation framework for sterling-denominated MMFs that allows me to trace fund-level liquidity dynamics under a wide range of redemption shocks and market-liquidity assumptions. The framework delivers two outcomes that are directly relevant for policy. The first is redemption capacity: the maximum cumulative redemptions as a share of assets that a fund can meet over a specified horizon without breaching a requirement to hold a certain share of its assets in financial instruments that can be liquidated within one day. The second is failure probability: the share of simulated paths in which this daily liquidity constraint is breached under a given shock, redemption profile and time horizon. Using these metrics, I can compare in a unified way the resilience of MMFs to redemption stresses over different time horizons and profiles, depending on their initial share of WLA and a specified failure level of 10% of assets under management (AUM)."
It comments, "The model draws on behavioural mechanisms proposed in the recent literature (Bouveret, Martin, and McCabe, 2022; Dunne and Giuliana, 2022; Baes, Bouveret, and Schaanning, 2023) and explicitly varies the market environment. Specifically, I consider three liquidity settings: (i) a conservative benchmark in which secondary markets are effectively frozen and funds rely only on cash and maturing assets; (ii) a setting in which government securities can be sold to help meet redemptions; and (iii) an extension in which certificates of deposit (CDs) can also be monetised prior to maturity, under explicit limits intended to capture market depth. These market counterfactuals are chosen to reflect the different conditions seen in the past."
Kumar summarizes, "I have three main findings. First, in the frozen-market benchmark, redemption capacity rises monotonically with initial WLA and with the length of the stress horizon over which redemptions are spread, and it is strongly shaped by the timing of redemptions: front-loaded (left-skewed) paths are substantially more destabilising than historically observed unimodal paths. Second, allowing asset sales shifts the redemption-capacity frontier favourably, but the size of this improvement is highly sensitive to market depth. When secondary-market liquidity deteriorates, funds cannot reliably liquidate the assets counted as WLA at scale, so the effective buffer is smaller than the headline WLA measure and resilience is correspondingly weaker."
He adds, "Third, failure probabilities imply a non-linear trade-off in the design of liquidity buffers. Under historically extreme shocks, the largest reduction in failure risk is generated by increasing the current regulatory minimum to a higher buffer that lifts funds away from the region in which constraints tend to bind; in my simulations, that improvement is concentrated around a move to approximately 40% WLA. Beyond 40%, the marginal reduction in failure risk tends to diminish, especially under unimodal (historically observed) redemption paths. This pattern suggests that raising the minimum WLA above the current floor can materially improve resilience (especially for historically observed outflows), while also indicating where additional increases yield smaller incremental benefits."
Finally, the paper states, "These findings speak directly to ongoing policy debates, including the FCA review of sterling MMFs (FCA, 2023) and the SEC's 2023 reforms (SEC, 2023). The central issue is calibration: buffers must be large enough to reduce the likelihood of destabilising liquidity spirals, yet not so high that they materially impair intermediation. Crucially, the required buffer must also be credible in periods of stress."
The Investment Company Institute published, "Worldwide Regulated Open-Fund Assets and Flows, Fourth Quarter 2025," which shows that money fund assets globally rose by $534.7 billion, or 4.2%, in Q4'25 to a record $13.280 trillion. (The totals would have been $13.552 trillion if Australia and New Zealand had been included.) Increases were led by a sharp jump in money funds in the U.S. and China, while Ireland and Luxembourg also showed strong gains. Meanwhile, money funds in France were sharply lower. MMF assets worldwide increased by $1.681 trillion, or 14.5%, in the 12 months through 12/31/25, and money funds in the U.S. now represent 58.3% of worldwide assets. In Q1, European money fund asset totals surpassed Asian money fund totals for the first time since Q4'2017. The new Q4 data shows Asian money fund totals moving back above European money fund totals. We review the latest Worldwide MMF assets, below.
ICI's release says, "Worldwide regulated open-end fund assets, excluding funds of funds, increased 3.6 percent to $87.96 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025. Worldwide net cash inflow to all funds was $1.4 trillion in the fourth quarter, compared with $822 billion of net inflows in the third quarter of 2025. The Investment Company Institute compiles worldwide regulated open-end fund statistics on behalf of the International Investment Funds Association (IIFA), the organization of national fund associations. The collection for the fourth quarter of 2025 contains statistics from 43 jurisdictions."
It explains, "The growth rate of total regulated open-end fund assets, as reported in US dollars, increased due to US dollar depreciation over the fourth quarter of 2025. For example, on a US dollar-denominated basis, fund assets in Europe increased by 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with an increase of 2.8 percent on a euro-denominated basis."
ICI's quarterly continues, "On a US dollar-denominated basis, equity fund assets increased by 2.8 percent to $42.56 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025. Bond fund assets increased by 5.7 percent to $16.66 trillion in the fourth quarter. Balanced/mixed fund assets increased by 1.4 percent to $8.51 trillion in the fourth quarter, while money market fund assets increased by 4.2 percent globally to $13.28 trillion."
The release also tells us, "At the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, 48% of worldwide regulated open-end fund assets were held in equity funds. The asset share of bond funds was 19% and the asset share of balanced/mixed funds was 10%. Money market fund assets represented 15% of the worldwide total. By region, 56% of worldwide assets were in the Americas in the fourth quarter of 2025, 32% were in Europe, and 12% were in Africa and the Asia-Pacific regions."
ICI adds, "Net sales of regulated open-end funds worldwide were $1.4 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2025.... Globally, bond funds posted an inflow of $385 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, after recording an inflow of $422 billion in the third quarter.... Money market funds worldwide experienced an inflow of $467 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025 after registering an inflow of $410 billion in the third quarter of 2025."
According to Crane Data's analysis of ICI's "Worldwide" fund data, the U.S. sustained its position as the largest money fund market in Q4'25 with $7.746 trillion, or 58.3% of all global MMF assets. U.S. MMF assets increased by $425.7 billion (5.8%) in Q4'25 and have increased by $893.9 billion (13.0%) in the 12 months through Dec. 31, 2025. China remained in second place among countries overall. China saw assets increase $89.6 billion (4.3%) in Q4 to $2.150 trillion (16.2% of worldwide assets). Over the 12 months through Dec. 31, 2025, Chinese MMF assets have increased by $285.3 billion, or 15.3%.
Ireland remained third among country rankings, ending Q4 with $1.064 trillion (8.0% of worldwide assets). Irish MMFs were up $17.9B for the quarter, or 1.7%, and up $150.1B, or 16.4%, over the last 12 months. Luxembourg remained in fourth place with $774.7 billion (5.8% of worldwide assets). Assets there increased $24.9 billion, or 3.3%, in Q4, and were up $134.4 billion, or 21.0%, over one year. France was in fifth place with $501.8B, or 3.8% of the total, down $22.9 billion in Q4 (-4.4%) and up $51.1B (11.3%) over 12 months.
Australia was listed (by us) in sixth place with $268.7 billion, or 2.0% of worldwide assets. Its MMF data was unavailable for 2024 and 2025, so we kept the 2023 Q4 numbers. Mexico was in 7th place with $161.8 billion (1.2%); assets there increased $5.1 billion (3.2%) in Q4 and increased by $36.2 billion (28.8%) over 12 months. Brazil was the 8th ranked country and saw MMF assets decrease $5.6 billion, or -3.8%, in Q4'25 to $141.1 billion (1.1% of the total); they've increased $33.1 billion (30.6%) for the year. Korea was in 9th place, as assets decreased $6.9 billion, or -4.8%, to $135.8 billion (1.0% of total assets) in Q4. They've increased $21.2 billion (18.5%) over the previous 12 months. ICI's statistics show Japan was listed in 10th place with $105.2B, or 0.8% of total assets, down $3.1 billion (-2.8%) for the quarter.
India was in 11th place, increasing $2.3 billion, or 2.5%, to $91.4 billion (0.7% of total assets) in Q4 and increasing $10.2 billion (12.6%) over the previous 12 months. Canada ($74.3B, up $4.5 billion and up $14.8B over the quarter and year, respectively) ranked 12th ahead of Switzerland. ($41.9B, down $3.8B and down $104M). United Kingdom ($40.8B, up $3.5B in Q4 and up $11.8B) and Chinese Taipei ($39.5B, up $1.4B and up $12.6B), rank 14th and 15th, respectively. Turkey, Chile, Argentina, Spain and South Africa round out the 20 largest countries with money market mutual funds.
ICI's quarterly series shows money fund assets in the Americas total $8.193 trillion, up $429.3 billion in Q4. Asian MMFs increased by $84.0 billion to $2.533 trillion, and Europe saw its money funds rise $21.3 billion in Q4'25 to $2.527 trillion. Africa saw its money funds increased $31 million to $26.0 billion.
Note that Ireland and Luxembourg's totals are primarily "offshore" money funds marketed to global multinationals, while most of the other countries in the survey have mainly domestic money fund offerings. Contact us if you'd like our latest "Largest Money Market Funds Markets Worldwide" spreadsheet, based on ICI's data. (Let us know too if you'd like to see our latest Money Fund Intelligence International product, which tracks "offshore" money market funds domiciled in Europe and outside the U.S.)
