Money Market News
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission published its latest monthly "Money Market Fund Statistics" summary, which shows that total money fund assets fell by $17.0 billion in April 2025 to $7.374 trillion, after hitting a record $7.391 trillion the previous month. The SEC shows Prime MMFs increased $2.4 billion in April to $1.258 trillion, Govt & Treasury funds decreased $24.7 billion to $5.969 trillion and Tax Exempt funds increased $5.3 billion to $147.0 billion. Taxable yields continued to decline in April after previous decreases in March, February and January. The SEC's Division of Investment Management summarizes monthly Form N-MFP data and includes asset totals and averages for yields, liquidity levels, WAMs, WALs, holdings, and other money market fund trends. We review their latest numbers below. (Our MFI XLS monthly shows money fund assets falling $15.5 billion in April 2025, after a record $7.333 trillion in March. In May month-to-date through 5/21, total money fund assets have increased by $56.3 billion to $7.356 trillion, according to Crane Data's separate, and slightly smaller, MFI Daily series.)
ICI published its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report Thursday. The weekly series shows money fund assets rising $27.7 billion to $6.969 trillion, after falling $5.0 billion the week prior and rising $37.6 billion two weeks ago. Money fund assets remain just below record levels and have still risen in 27 of the last 42, and 38 of the last 57 weeks, increasing by $665.1 billion (or 10.6%) since the Fed cut on 9/18/24 and increasing by $991.2 billion (or 16.6%) since 4/24/24. MMF assets are up by $903 billion, or 14.9%, in the past 52 weeks (through 5/21/25), with Institutional MMFs up $463 billion, or 12.7% and Retail MMFs up $440 billion, or 18.1%. Year-to-date, MMF assets are up by just $118 billion, or 1.7%, with Institutional MMFs down $18 billion, or -0.4% and Retail MMFs up $137 billion, or 5.0%. (Note: Register soon for our upcoming Crane's Money Fund Symposium, which is June 23-25. We hope to see you next month in Boston!)
Fitch Ratings published "U.S. Local Government Investment Pools Monitor: 1Q25," which states, "Fitch Ratings' two local government investment pool (LGIP) indices reported an aggregate asset increase in the first quarter of 2025 (1Q25) driven by Liquidity LGIPs, consistent with seasonal flow trends. Total assets for the Fitch Liquidity LGIP Index and the Fitch Short-Term LGIP Index reached $655.5 billion at quarter end, marking increases of $9.3 billion qoq and $40.5 billion yoy. (Fitch's tables shows the Liquidity LGIP total at just $430.7 billion and the Short-Term LGIP total at $224.8 billion.) The Fitch Liquidity LGIP Index rose by 2.3% qoq while the Fitch Short-Term LGIP Index fell by 0.2% qoq. These changes contrast with an average increase of 6.2% and average decrease of 1.8%, respectively, during the first quarter over the past three years."
Crane Data published its latest Weekly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics Tuesday, which track a shifting subset of our monthly Portfolio Holdings collection. The most recent cut (with data as of May 16) includes Holdings information from 62 money funds (unchanged from two weeks ago), or $3.623 trillion (down from $3.633 trillion) of the $7.325 trillion in total money fund assets (or 49.5%) tracked by Crane Data. (Note: Our Weekly MFPH are e-mail only and aren't available on the website. See our latest Monthly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings here and our May 12 News, "May Money Fund Portfolio Holdings: FICC Repo Hits $1T, T-Bills Drop.")
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Lorie Logan hosted a panel on "The Increasing Role of Nonbank Institutions in the Treasury and Money Markets" at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta 2025 Financial Markets Conference. The panel featured Lou Crandall of Wrightson ICAP, Deirdre Dunn of Citigroup Global Markets and chair of the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, and Nate Wuerffel of BNY. In Logan's "Opening remarks," she comments, "Our topic this afternoon is a timely one: the role of nonbank financial institutions (NBFIs) in Treasury and money markets.... The Treasury market and money markets sit at the very core of the financial system. The Treasury market finances the U.S. government, provides a safe and liquid asset relied on by investors worldwide, and creates a benchmark for broader long-term interest rates. Money markets establish overnight risk-free interest rates that are building blocks for all other asset prices, they keep credit flowing through the economy by financing a wide range of assets, and they are where the Fed implements the stance of monetary policy. And these markets are tightly linked because one of the main money markets is the repo market, where Treasury securities are financed."
Stradley Ronon Partner Jamie Gershkow and Associate Geena Marzouca recently published an article in The Investment Lawyer titled, "Are We Trying to Kill Institutional Prime Funds? -- Money Market Funds in a Post Reform Era." The two explain, "At a meeting of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopting significant reforms to money market fund regulation, Commissioner Peirce posed a pointed question: Are we trying to kill institutional prime funds? With the `final compliance date for money market fund reform behind us, this article looks at whether Commissioner Peirce's concern became reality and assesses the overall impact of the reforms on the money market fund industry. This article reviews considerations related to the implementation of certain aspects of the reforms, including liquidity fees, share cancellation, increased liquidity requirements and stress testing, and board oversight of money market funds under amended Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (1940 Act)."
S&P Global Ratings published "U.S. Domestic 'AAAm' Money Market Fund Trends (First-Quarter 2025)" recently, which tells us, "Rated MMF assets were stable quarter over quarter. Government and prime MMFs experienced modest growth early in the year, which was partially related to institutional investors building up cash amid the uncertainty around the U.S. administration's policies. Near the end of the first quarter, rated MMFs saw outflows in line with seasonal patterns. We expect that MMF assets will experience limited growth until the tax season settles."
Crane Data's latest Money Fund Intelligence International shows that assets in European or "offshore" money market mutual funds inched lower over the past 30 days to $1.506 trillion, after hitting a record high $1.518 trillion the month prior, while yields were flat or lower. Assets for USD and EUR MMFs fell while GBP MMFs were flat over the past month. Like U.S. money fund assets, European MMFs repeatedly hit record highs in 2023, 2024 and early in 2025 but have paused in recent weeks. These U.S.-style money funds, domiciled in Ireland or Luxembourg and denominated in US Dollars, Pound Sterling and Euros, decreased by $12.6 billion over the 30 days through 5/13. The totals are up $73.1 billion (5.1%) year-to-date for 2025, they were up $235.3 billion (19.7%) for 2024 and up $166.9 billion (16.2%) for the year 2023. (Note that currency moves in the U.S. dollar cause Euro and Sterling totals to shift when they're translated back into totals in U.S. dollars. See our latest MFI International for more on the "offshore" money fund marketplace. These funds are only available to qualified, non-U.S. investors and are almost entirely institutional.)
The May issue of our Bond Fund Intelligence, which was sent to subscribers Wednesday morning, features the stories, "Fidelity Says Shorter Is Better for Bond Funds; 88% of Return," which covers a recent white paper, and "ICI's 2025 Fact Book Reviews '24 Bond Fund Trends, Flows," which looks at the latest stats on the fund industry. BFI also recaps the latest Bond Fund News and includes our Crane BFI Indexes, which show that bond fund returns inched higher in April while yields were also higher. We excerpt from the new issue below. (Contact us if you'd like to see our latest Bond Fund Intelligence and BFI XLS spreadsheet, or our Bond Fund Portfolio Holdings data.)
With money market fund assets continuing to hover near record levels (assets remain just above $7.3 trillion), our upcoming Money Fund Symposium seems destined to break well over 600 attendees. Money Fund Symposium 2025 is scheduled for June 23-25, 2025 at The Renaissance Boston Seaport, in Boston, Mass. The full agenda for the largest gathering of money market fund managers and cash investors in the world is available and registrations are still being taken. Money Fund Symposium attracts money fund managers, marketers and servicers, cash investors, money market securities dealers, issuers, and regulators. We review our latest agenda, as well as Crane Data's other 2025 conferences, below.
Crane Data's May Money Fund Portfolio Holdings, with data as of April 30, 2025, show that holdings of Repo jumped last month while Treasuries declined. Money market securities held by Taxable U.S. money funds (tracked by Crane Data) decreased by $73.8 billion to $7.199 trillion in April, after increasing $45.6 billion in March, $53.7 billion in February, $84.1 billion in January, and $88.0 billion in December. They rose by $190.8 billion in November, $82.8 billion in October and $233.8 billion in September. Repo, now the largest segment, increased $31.4 billion in April. Treasuries, now the second largest portfolio composition segment, decreased by $168.3 billion. Agencies were the third largest segment, 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.)
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 May 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 April 30, includes holdings information from 992 money funds (up 5 from last month), representing assets of $7.367 trillion (down from a record high of $7.433 trillion a month ago). Prime MMFs rose to $1.137 trillion (up from $1.133 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 $19.6 billion (annualized) in April.
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