Money Market News
Moody's Ratings recently published a report titled, "Money market fund sector faces wave of tech-driven innovation," which tells us, "A new generation of technology-driven products looks set to shake up the conservative money market fund (MMF) sector. Exchange traded and tokenized MMFs, most of which have entered the market since late 2024, offer greater flexibility, transparency and lower costs than traditional MMFs. They will increase competitive pressure on incumbents, but may also attract significant numbers of new investors to the asset class. Traditional MMFs are low-risk funds that issue redeemable shares to investors, and invest in short term, high quality assets. Their key advantages are that they typically offer stable net asset value (NAV) per share and are highly liquid, allowing investors to redeem their money at short notice. This feature also allows them to serve as a cash management tool for large companies."
Charles Schwab reported Q1'25 earnings and hosted its "2025 Spring Business Update" last week (see the transcript here). CFO Mike Verdeschi tells us, "We saw solid growth across all fronts during the first quarter as we continued to meet the evolving needs of our growing client base. New account formation was approximately 1.2 million during the period, our highest total in several years.... This combination of organic growth and increased client utilization of our leading products and solutions resulted in year-over-year revenue and adjusted earnings growth of 18% and 41% respectively. Transactional cash levels continue to reflect normalized cash behaviors inclusive of organic growth, seasonality and investor sentiment. And we made additional progress on reducing the level of bank supplemental funding to approximately $38 billion, down more than 60% from peak levels."
ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money fund assets falling $125.4 billion to $6.881 trillion, after falling $25.4 billion the week prior but rising $17.6 billion two weeks ago (to a record on 4/2). Massive (presumably) tax-related outflows make this the largest weekly outflow in history. But money fund assets have still risen in 24 of the last 37, and 35 of the last 52 weeks, increasing by $577.3 billion (or 9.2%) since the Fed cut on 9/18/24 and increasing by $903.4 billion (or 15.1%) since 4/24/24. MMF assets are up by $913 billion, or 15.3%, in the past 52 weeks (through 4/16/25), with Institutional MMFs up $465 billion, or 13.0% and Retail MMFs up $447 billion, or 18.6%. Year-to-date, MMF assets are up by $30 billion, or 0.4%, with Institutional MMFs down $82 billion, or -2.0% and Retail MMFs up $113 billion, or 4.1%.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission published its latest monthly "Money Market Fund Statistics" summary, which shows that total money fund assets rose by $2.8 billion in March 2025 to a record $7.391 trillion. The SEC shows Prime MMFs increased $22.1 billion in March to $1.256 trillion, Govt & Treasury funds decreased $21.8 billion to $5.993 trillion and Tax Exempt funds increased $2.4 billion to $141.7 billion. Taxable yields continued to decline in March after previous decreases in 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 rising $2.3 billion in March 2025 to a record $7.333 trillion. In April month-to-date through 4/14, total money fund assets have decreased by $58.8 billion to $7.265 trillion, according to Crane Data's separate, and slightly smaller, MFI Daily series.)
A filing for Ramirez Government Money Market Fund (Retail Class, RMZXX and Institutional Class, RAMXX), states, "The Board of Trustees of Advisor Managed Portfolios, upon a recommendation from Ramirez Asset Management, Inc., the investment adviser to the Fund, has determined to close and liquidate the Fund immediately after the close of business on April 29, 2025. This decision was made due to the Fund's inability to obtain a level of assets necessary for it to be viable. Effective immediately, the Fund will no longer accept purchases of new shares. The Fund is closed to new purchases, whether from existing or new investors. The Fund will no longer pursue its stated investment objective and Fund assets will be managed to provide for sufficient liquidity prior to liquidation. On or promptly after the Liquidation Date, the Fund will make a liquidating distribution to its remaining shareholders equal to each shareholder's proportionate interest in the net assets of the Fund, in complete redemption and cancellation of the Fund's shares held by the shareholder, and the Fund will be dissolved."
Crane Data's latest Money Fund Intelligence International shows that assets in European or "offshore" money market mutual funds inched higher again over the past 30 days to a record $1.518 trillion, while yields were flat or lower. Assets for USD, EUR and GBP MMFs all rose over the past month. Like U.S. money fund assets, European MMFs have repeatedly hit record highs in 2023, 2024 and early in 2025. These U.S.-style money funds, domiciled in Ireland or Luxembourg and denominated in US Dollars, Pound Sterling and Euros, increased by $20.6 billion over the 30 days through 4/11. The totals are up $85.7 billion (6.0%) 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 April issue of our Bond Fund Intelligence, which was sent to subscribers Monday morning, features the stories, "Worldwide BF Assets Fall to $13.8 Trillion, Led by Brazil," which covers ICI's recent quarterly update on worldwide assets, and "Bond Fund Symposium '25: Brill, Salvay Talk Core BFs," which quotes from our recent conference in Newport Beach. BFI also recaps the latest Bond Fund News and includes our Crane BFI Indexes, which show that bond fund return dipped in March while yields were mostly 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.)
State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) writes that "Cash Is Both Shield and Sword" in its latest "Q2 2025 Cash Outlook." Portfolio Strategist Will Goldthwait explains, "Throughout history, financial crises have repeatedly taught a crucial lesson: survival favors the cautious. In times of heightened economic uncertainty, the prudent course is often to hold more cash and wait for calmer markets. Cash not only provides liquidity and security during volatile periods, but also grants the flexibility to seize opportunities when asset prices eventually correct. Historically, those who maintained unleveraged positions and proactively de-risked their portfolios were the ones best positioned to endure market turmoil and emerge stronger on the other side."
Crane Data's April Money Fund Portfolio Holdings, with data as of March 31, 2025, show that holdings of Repo jumped sharply last month while Treasuries declined. Money market securities held by Taxable U.S. money funds (tracked by Crane Data) increased by $45.6 billion to $7.272 trillion in March, after increasing $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. Treasuries, the largest segment, decreased $83.3 billion in March. Repo, the second largest portfolio composition segment, increased by $92.7 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 Wednesday, and we'll be writing our regular monthly update on the new April data for Thursday'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 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 March 31, includes holdings information from 987 money funds (down 2 from last month), representing assets of $7.433 trillion (up from $7.388 trillion a month ago). Prime MMFs rose to $1.133 trillion (up from $1.107 trillion), or 15.2% 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 $19.7 billion (annualized) in March.
Crane Data's latest monthly Money Fund Market Share rankings show assets mixed among most of the largest U.S. money fund complexes in March after rising in February, January, December, November, October, September, August, July, June and May. Assets fell in April and last March. Money market fund assets fell by $3.6 billion, or -0.0%, last month to $7.326 trillion. Total MMF assets have increased by $145.3 billion, or 2.0%, over the past 3 months, and they've increased by $922.4 billion, or 14.4%, over the past 12 months. The largest increases among the 25 largest managers last month were seen by Fidelity, Vanguard, Schwab, Invesco and UBS, which grew assets by $21.7 billion, $16.8B, $16.5B, $9.4B and $2.2B, respectively. Declines in March were seen by SSGA, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and First American, which decreased by $14.4 billion, $11.1B, $9.1B and $8.2B, 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 slightly lower in March.
The April issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Monday morning, features the articles: "Money Market ETFs Now a Thing: Schwab Joins BlackRock," which discusses the recent launches of and news in the MM ETF space; "Bond Fund Symposium '25 Focus on Ultra-Shorts, ETFs," which looks at our recent conference in Newport Beach; and, "Worldwide MMFs Rise in Q4 to Record $11.6 Tril.; US, Lux" which reviews ICI's Worldwide fund totals. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Monday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 3/31/24 data. Our April Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Wednesday, April 9, and our April Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Monday, April 14.
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