Northern Institutional Funds filed to liquidate its $1.7 billion Northern Prime Obligations Portfolio earlier this week, we learned from Bloomberg. The filing says, "The Board of Trustees (the 'Board') of Northern Institutional Funds (the 'Trust') has determined, after consideration of a number of factors, that it is in the best interests of the Prime Obligations Portfolio (the 'Portfolio') and its shareholders that the Portfolio be liquidated and terminated on or about July 10, 2020 (the 'Liquidation Date') pursuant to a plan of liquidation approved by the Board. The Liquidation Date may be changed at the discretion of the Trust's officers. The pending liquidation of the Portfolio may be terminated and/or abandoned at any time before the Liquidation Date by action of the Board of the Trust. As of the date of this supplement, Williams Capital Shares of the Portfolio have not commenced operations and are not offered for purchase." (The fund's assets are down from $3.8 billion on Feb. 28, 2020.)
The Bloomberg piece, "Northern Trust to Shutter Money-Market Fund After Redemptions," tells us, "Northern Trust Corp. is shutting down a money-market mutual fund after volatility in March spurred redemptions that sent it below a regulatory threshold for maintaining liquidity. The $1.7 billion Northern Institutional Prime Obligations Portfolio will stop accepting new investments next month and start selling its holdings under a liquidation plan set for July 10, according to a filing."
Reuters, in a March 23 article,"Fed's Money Market Move Lifts Northern Trust Fund Above Key Threshhold," wrote, "Liquidity at a $2.2 billion prime money-market fund run by Northern Trust Corp fell below the key 30% U.S. regulatory threshold twice last week, but rebounded above that level after the U.S. Federal Reserve shored up the industry. As the coronavirus roils the global economy and squeezes Wall Street for cash, money-market reforms put in place after the 2007-2009 financial crisis are weathering a major test."
They explained, "Several institutional prime funds, whose investors include large corporations, were at risk of falling below the 30% threshold before the Fed took extraordinary steps reminiscent of the last financial crisis to backstop the money-market industry." The Northern Prime Obligations Portfolio disclosed that its weekly liquidity level fell to 27% of assets twice last week, according to the fund's website -- reducing its buffer for quickly converting assets into cash to meet investors' redemptions. However, Chicago-based Northern Trust, a bank and wealth manager, said on Monday the latest weekly liquidity level for the fund was nearly 41%."
In other news, The Federal Reserve Bank of New York published an update on the "The Primary Dealer Credit Facility" via its Liberty Street Economics blog. They write, "On March 17, 2020, the Federal Reserve announced that it would re-establish the Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF) to allow primary dealers to support smooth market functioning and facilitate the availability of credit to businesses and households. The PDCF started offering overnight and term funding with maturities of up to ninety days on March 20. It will be in place for at least six months and may be extended as conditions warrant. In this post, we provide an overview of the PDCF and its usage to date."
The NY Fed writes, "Lending rose quickly after the PDCF's launch, and the weekly average of outstanding loans peaked at over $35 billion for the week ending April 15.... Outstanding loans remained in the $30-35 billion range for a few weeks, before decreasing recently, as market conditions improved. The vast majority of value-weighted PDCF loans have a maturity longer than overnight.... The bulk of the assets financed in the PDCF to date have been corporate and municipal debt, as well as asset-backed securities and commercial paper. These are asset classes that were experiencing considerable volatility and pressure in early March. Market conditions have improved markedly since the introduction of a variety of Fed interventions, including the PDCF."
They explain, "The Federal Reserve initially established the PDCF in March of 2008, following severe strains in the tri-party repo market, associated in part with Bear Stearns' troubles.... Following its inception in March 2008, usage of the original PDCF increased to approximately $40 billion, before decreasing to zero by mid-2008.... This $40 billion level is roughly comparable to the peak usage of today's PDCF. Usage of the original PDCF increased to over $140 billion in September 2008, following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. This peak is much higher than the current use of today's PDCF. However, the range of collateral eligible for the PDCF post-Lehman was much broader than the range of eligible collateral at the PDCF today, making comparisons difficult."
The piece adds, "The PDCF is one of many facilities introduced by the Federal Reserve to support the U.S. economy in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The PDCF helps primary dealers support smooth market functioning and facilitate the availability of credit to businesses and households in their capacity as market makers for corporate, consumer, and municipal obligations." For more, see these previous Liberty Street Economics blogs: "The Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility" and "The Commercial Paper Funding Facility."
Finally, 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 15) includes Holdings information from 80 money funds (up two from two weeks ago), which represent $2.664 trillion (up from $2.568 trillion) of the $5.123 trillion (52.0%) in total money fund assets tracked by Crane Data. (Note that our Weekly MFPH are e-mail only and aren't available on the website. For our latest monthly Holdings, see our May 12 News, "May MF Portfolio Holdings: Treasuries Skyrocket, Repo Plunges in April.)
Our latest Weekly MFPH Composition summary again shows Government assets dominating the holdings list with Treasury totaling $1.344 trillion (up from $1.209 trillion two weeks ago), or 50.4%, Repurchase Agreements (Repo) totaling $635.7 billion (down from $706.4 billion two weeks ago), or 23.9% and Government Agency securities totaling $470.7 billion (up from $470.4 billion), or 17.7%. Certificates of Deposit (CDs) totaled $70.7 billion (up from $48.7 billion), or 2.7% and Commercial Paper (CP) totaled $59.2 billion (up from $58.7 billion), or 2.2%. A total of $46.9 billion or 1.8%, was listed in the Other category (primarily Time Deposits), and VRDNs accounted for $37.6 billion, or 1.4%.
The Ten Largest Issuers in our Weekly Holdings product include: the US Treasury with $1.344 trillion (50.4% of total holdings), Federal Home Loan Bank with $289.3B (10.9%), Fixed Income Clearing Co with $99.9B (3.7%), Federal Farm Credit Bank with $69.9B (2.6%), BNP Paribas with $69.5B (2.6%), Federal National Mortgage Association with $57.5B (2.2%), Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp with $51.3B (1.9%), JP Morgan with $49.5B (1.9%), RBC with $46.8B (1.8%) and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc with $30.0B (1.1%).
The Ten Largest Funds tracked in our latest Weekly include: JP Morgan US Govt ($228.4B), Goldman Sachs FS Govt ($217.0B), Fidelity Inv MM: Govt Port ($194.3B), BlackRock Lq FedFund ($175.5B), JPMorgan 100% US Treas MMkt ($142.3B), Wells Fargo Govt MM ($138.6B), Goldman Sachs FS Treas Instruments ($133.3B), Morgan Stanley Inst Liq Govt ($109.3B), State Street Inst US Govt ($105.4B) and BlackRock Lq T-Fund ($86.4B). (Let us know if you'd like to see our latest domestic U.S. and/or "offshore" Weekly Portfolio Holdings collection and summary, or our Bond Fund Portfolio Holdings data series.)
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The February issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Friday morning, features the articles: "MMF Assets Cool Down in January; Seasonal Trends," which discusses the slowing growth in money funds; "Federated Hermes' Q4'25 Call Talks Flows, Tokenized MMFs," which cites highlights from the recent earnings call; and "PFII on CA, NY, NH and PA LGIPs; Seeking Disclosures," which reviews a recent article from The Public Funds Investment Institute. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Friday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 1/31/25 data. Our February Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Tuesday, Feb. 10, and our February Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Friday, Feb. 13.
MFI's "MMF Assets Cool Down" story says, "Money fund assets increased by $38.5 billion to a record $8.160 trillion in January, according to our Money Fund Intelligence XLS. The asset slowdown follows 5 straight months of $100+ billion increases, but normally January sees outflows. We show the average monthly change in money fund assets over the past 15 years (2011-2025) in the chart below. January is the second weakest month (after June) and normally sees outflows of about $14 billion. (Note that March and April are normally very weak, but these were inflated by huge inflows in 2020 due to the Covid shutdown and 2023 due to the SVB bankruptcy.)"
The story continues, "Assets increased by $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. MMFs fell by $24.4 billion in April, but rose $2.8 trillion in March, $94.2 billion in February and $52.8 billion last January. 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."
We write in the "Federated," story, "Federated Hermes reported it Q4'25 earnings and hosted its Q4'25 earnings call late last week. In the press release, President & CEO J. Christopher Donahue, says, 'Federated Hermes' record assets at year-end were again driven by money market asset increases, as our liquidity products provided attractive cash management resources and opportunities for risk adjusted returns. We also continued to see ... interest in our growing range of investment solutions beyond mutual funds, including ETFs, CITs and SMAs.'"
It adds, "Donahue explains on the call, 'We reached another record high at the end of 2025 for total money market assets, which increased by $30 billion to reach $683 billion. Money market fund assets increased by $16 billion or 3% in Q4 to reach a record high of $508 billion. Money market separate accounts increased by $14 billion in the fourth quarter, reflecting seasonal patterns. Market conditions remain favorable for cash as an asset class. In addition to the appeal of relative safety in periods of volatility, money market strategies present opportunities to earn attractive yields compared to alternatives such as bank deposits and direct investments in T-bills and commercial paper.'"
Our "LGIP" article says, "The Public Funds Investment Institute (PFII) writes on 'LGIPs: New Pools and Manager Changes.' They explain, 'In October 2024 we wrote about local government investment pools changing managers. It's unusual but not unheard of in the LGIP business. Sometimes an LGIP simply replaces a manager and sometimes local governments band together to create a new fund to bring in a manager or expand competition in a state. We've seen both recently.'"
It continues, "The PFII writes, 'California: CalFIT (California Fixed Income Trust) is a new LGIP that began offering a stable value portfolio in the fall. It invests in government and high grade corporate and bank obligations and is managed by Chandler Asset Management, a California based firm that entered the LGIP business in 2024 when it replaced Public Trust Advisors as manager of the FL SAFE LGIP in Florida. As of December 31, 2025, CalFIT reported $331 million in assets. California has a long-established state-sponsored and three other local sponsored LGIPs. Large states are well able to support multiple LGIPs. California joins Florida and Texas in this regard.'"
MFI also includes the News brief, "Money Fund Yields Stabilize at 3.5%, Lowest Since 11/22." It says, "Yields (7-day, annualized, simple, net) fell by 8 bps to 3.50% on average during January (as measured by our Crane 100 Money Fund Index). Fund yields should remain flat given that the Fed left rates unchanged at its Jan. 28 meeting. Yields haven't been below 3.5% since Nov. 2022. They're down from a recent high of 5.20% in Nov. 2023. MMF yields were 3.58% on 12/31/25, 3.94% on 9/30, 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."
Another News brief, "Fed Z.1 Shows Jump in Household, Corporate Assets; T-Bills Surge in Q3," comments, "The Federal Reserve's latest quarterly 'Z.1 Financial Accounts of the United States' statistical survey (a.k.a. 'Flow of Funds') includes 4 tables on money market mutual funds. The Third Quarter 2025 edition shows that Total MMF Assets increased by $293 billion to $7.774 trillion in Q3’25. The Household Sector, by far the largest investor segment with $5.035 trillion, saw the biggest asset increase in Q3, followed by Nonfinancial Corporate Business and Other Financial Business (formerly Funding Corps). The Fed’s latest Z.1 numbers, which contain one of the few looks at money fund investor segments available, also showed noticeable increases for the Mutual Funds and Rest of the World categories in Q3 2025."
A third News brief, "MMFs in Retirement Plans Approach $1 Trillion," says: "The Investment Company Institute published, 'Retirement Assets Total $48.1 Trillion in Third Quarter 2025,' which includes data tables showing that money market funds held in retirement accounts jumped to $987 billion (up from $966 billion) in the latest quarter, accounting for 13% of the total $7.321 trillion in money funds. MMFs represent just 6.8% of the total $14.5 trillion of mutual funds in retirement accounts."
A sidebar, "BlackRock Q4 Call on Cash," says, "BlackRock CFO Martin Small comments on their latest earnings call, 'BlackRock Cash Management saw $74 billion of net inflows in the fourth quarter and $131 billion in 2025, driven by U.S. Government, International, Prime and Circle Reserve Funds. BlackRock’s platform is anchored by growth engines tied to the long-term expansion of global capital markets and fast-growing client product channels.'"
Our February MFI XLS, with January 31 data, shows total assets rose $38.5 billion to a record high $8.160 trillion, after increasing $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 in April and $4.6 billion in March. Assets increased $90.4 billion last February.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was down 7 bps at 3.40%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was down 8 bps at 3.50% in January. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 3.77% and 3.77%. Charged Expenses averaged 0.37% and 0.27% for the Crane MFA and the Crane 100. (We'll revise expenses once we upload the SEC's Form N-MFP data for 1/31/26 on Monday, 2/9.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 39 days (up 1 day) and the Crane 100 WAM was up 2 days from the previous month at 42 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)
Crane Data is ramping up preparations for our ninth annual ultra-short bond fund event, Bond Fund Symposium, which will take place March 19-20, 2026 at the Hyatt Regency in Boston, Mass. Crane's Bond Fund Symposium offers a concentrated and affordable educational experience, as well as an excellent networking venue, for bond fund and fixed-income professionals, and enhanced cash investors. Registrations are now being accepted ($1,000) and speaking and sponsorship opportunities are still available. We review the latest agenda and details below, and we also give an update on our upcoming big show, Money Fund Symposium, which will be held this June in Jersey City, NJ, June 24-26. (Note: Crane Data will also be celebrating its 20th Birthday at the BFS Cocktail Party, March 19, from 5-7pm, and Boston locals are welcome to stop by and check out the conference and party!)
Bond Fund Symposium's Day One (3/19) morning agenda includes: Ultra-Short Bond Fund Update: Spring Break with Teresa Ho of J.P. Morgan Securities and Jerome Schneider of PIMCO; State of the Bond Fund Marketplace, with Lei Li of ICI and Peter Crane of Crane Data; and Bond Market Strategists: Rates & Returns, with Will Hoffman of Bloomberg Intelligence. (Note: The agenda is still shifting slightly, so let us know if you're interested in speaking or have any requests!)
The Day One afternoon agenda includes: Senior Portfolio Manager Perspectives moderated by Peter Crane of Crane Data with Richard Mejzak of BlackRock, Dave Rothweiler of UBS Asset Management and Dave Martucci of J.P. Morgan A.M.; LGIPs, SMAs & Stable Value Funds moderated by John Donohue of RBC Global A.M. with Kelsey Bosshard of RBC Global AM, Peter Gargiulo of Fitch Ratings and Patricia Kao of Silicon Valley Bank; Stable Value & Core Bond Fund Issues with Kevin Calabro of Franklin Templeton and Michael Salvay of Payden & Rygel; and, ETF Index & Near-Cash ETF Trends featuring Marcel Benjamin of State Street's SPDR Fixed-Income Group, James Palmieri of State Street Investment Management and Rahul Ghai of S&P Global Ratings. Thursday will close with a reception sponsored by Northern Trust (which is open to anyone in the area to "crash").
Day Two's agenda includes: Money Funds & Conservative Ultra-Shorts with Peter Crane of Crane Data and Morten Olsen of Northern Trust A.M.; Regulatory Update: Bond Fund Issues '26 with Louis Rosenbaum of Dechert LLP and Jamie Gershkow of Stradley Ronon; Sustainable & European Bond Fund Update with Henry Shilling of Sustainable Research & Analysis and John Hunt of Sullivan & Worcester LLP; and, Bond Fund Data & Information with Peter Crane of Crane Data.
Portfolio managers, analysts, investors, issuers, service providers, and anyone interested in expanding their knowledge of bond funds and fixed-income investing will benefit from our comprehensive program. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Hyatt Regency Boston. We'd like to thank our sponsors and exhibitors -- Northern Trust Asset Management, Capitolis, UBS Asset Management, Mayer Brown, Northcross, Fitch Ratings, Fidelity Investments, J.P. Morgan, Bloomberg Intelligence, Payden & Rygel, PIMCO and Dechert -- for their support. (We'd also love to get some new ones!) E-mail us for more details, and let us know if you'd like to request a free ticket or 2-for-1 deal!
Also, our annual Money Fund Symposium will be held June 24-26, 2026 at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City. Crane's Money Fund Symposium covers the latest trends in money funds, interest rates, regulations, ratings, and money market instruments such as commercial paper, CDs and repo. We also include segments on offshore money funds, money market ETFs, stablecoin reserves and tokenized money funds.
Money Fund Symposium is run by Crane Data, publisher of the Money Fund Intelligence newsletter. It offers money market portfolio managers, investors, issuers, dealers and service providers a concentrated and affordable educational experience and informal networking venue. Registration is $1,000 and includes meals, beverages, binders and t-shirts. Exhibit space is $3,000 (and includes 2 tickets); and sponsorship opportunities are $4.5K (3 tickets), $6K (4 tickets), $7.5K (5 tickets) and $10K (8 tickets). The latest MFS agenda is available online and we are now taking registrations. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City.
We'll also soon start making plans for our European Money Fund Symposium, which will be held Sept. 24-25, 2026, at The Pullman Hotel in Paris, France. (Let us know if you'd like details on speaking or sponsoring.) Finally, mark your calendars for our next Money Fund University, which will be held Dec. 17-18 in Greenwich, Conn. Watch for details on these shows in coming weeks and months, and we hope to see you in Boston, Jersey City, Paris or Greenwich in 2026!
The January issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Thursday morning, features the articles: "Yields Drop to 3.6%; Assets Break Through $8.1 Trillion," which discusses the decline in yields but continued jump in assets; "ICI: Worldwide MMFs Jump in Q3'25 to $12.7T; China $2T," which looks at the latest MMF statistics outside the U.S.; and "Top Money Funds of 2025; 17th Annual MFI Awards," which reviews the best performing MMFs of 2025. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Thursday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 12/31/25 data. Our January Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Monday, Jan. 12, and our January Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Thursday, Jan. 15.
MFI's "Yields Drop to 3.6%" story says, "Money market mutual fund assets jumped by another $123.5 billion in December to a record $8.116 trillion, according to our monthly MFI XLS. In 2025, assets rose by $932.6 billion, or 13.0%. Assets have continued higher in January month-to-date, rising by $56.6B to a record $8.165 trillion (as of 1/6/26).
The story continues, "MMF assets increased by $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 in April. Assets increased by $2.8 billion in March, $94.2 billion in February, $52.8 billion in January, and $110.9 billion last December."
We write in the "ICI: Worldwide," story, "The Investment Company Institute's 'Worldwide Regulated Open-Fund Assets and Flows, Third Quarter 2025' shows that money fund assets globally rose by $430.2 billion, or 3.5%, in Q3'25 to a record $12.745 trillion. Increases were led by a sharp jump in money funds in the U.S. and China, while Ireland and Luxembourg also rose. Meanwhile, money funds in Korea were lower. MMF assets worldwide increased by $1.530 trillion, or 13.6%, in the 12 months through 9/30/25, and money funds in the U.S. now represent 57.4% of worldwide assets."
It adds, "ICI's release says, 'Worldwide regulated open-end fund assets, excluding assets in funds of funds, increased 5.0% to $84.90 trillion at the end of the third quarter of 2025. Worldwide net cash inflow to all funds was $821 billion in the third quarter, compared with $714 billion of net inflows in the second 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 third quarter of 2025 contains statistics from 44 jurisdictions.'"
Our "Top Money Funds of 2025" article says, "This issue recognizes the top performing money funds, ranked by total returns, for calendar year 2025, as well as the top funds for the past 5‐year and 10‐year periods. We present the funds below with our annual Money Fund Intelligence Awards. These are given to the No. 1‐ranked funds based on 1‐year, 5‐year and 10‐year returns, through Dec. 31, 2025, in each of our major fund categories -- Prime Institutional, Government Institutional, Treasury Institutional, Prime Retail, Government Retail, Treasury Retail and Tax‐Exempt."
It continues, "The Top-Performing Prime Inst fund (and fund overall) was BlackRock Cash Inst MMF SL (BISXX), which returned 4.46%. Among Prime Retail money funds, Morgan Stanley Inst Liq MMP Wealth (MWMXX) had the best return in 2025 (4.37%). (Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index returned 4.11% in 2025.)
MFI also includes the News brief, "Fed Cuts Funds Target to 3.5-3.75%." It says, "As expected, the Federal Reserve's FOMC cut interest rates by a quarter percent to a range of 3.5-3.75% on Dec. 10. See the release, 'Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement.'"
Another News brief, "Boston Fed Paper Examines Vulnerabilities of MM ETFs, Tokenized MMFs," comments, "The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston published, 'A Framework for Understanding the Vulnerabilities of New Money-Like Products.' It says, '[T]he recent emergence of new types of non-bank money-like products, such as stablecoins, tokenized money market funds (MMFs), and money market exchange-traded funds (MMETFs), could be transformative for finance.... [L]ike other money-like assets, such as uninsured deposits and MMFs, the new products can be susceptible to costly, disruptive runs and thus contribute to financial system vulnerabilities.'"
A third News brief, "JPM Treasury MM ETF Live," says: "A release, 'J.P. Morgan Asset Management Unveils New JPMorgan 100% U.S. Treasury Securities Money Market ETF (JMMF),' states, 'J.P. Morgan Asset Management ... announced the launch of the JPMorgan 100% U.S. Treasury Securities Money Market ETF (JMMF) on the NYSE Arca. JMMF is designed to offer investors current income, easy access to their funds, and low volatility of principal, while also providing the convenience and transparency of an ETF. As demand for active ETFs continues to grow, investors are seeking more strategies across asset classes that offer greater transparency and ... flexibility.'"
A sidebar, "JPMAM Tokenized MMF Live," says, "A release titled, 'J.P. Morgan Asset Management Launches Its First Tokenized Money Market Fund.' states, 'JPMAM ... announced the launch of its first tokenized money market fund, My OnChain Net Yield Fund ('MONY'), now available on the public Ethereum blockchain. Powered by Kinexys Digital Assets, the firm's industry-leading, multi-chain asset tokenization solution, MONY is a 506(c) private placement fund providing qualified investors the opportunity to earn U.S. dollar yields by subscribing through Morgan Money, the firm's ... platform for liquidity management. Morgan Money is the first institutional liquidity trading platform to integrate traditional and on-chain assets offering investors access to a full-range of money market products.'"
Our January MFI XLS, with December 31 data, shows total assets rose $123.5 billion to a record high $8.116 trillion, after increasing $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 in April and $4.6 billion in March. Assets increased $90.4 billion in February and $47.9 billion last January.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was down 20 bps at 3.48%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was down 20 bps at 3.58% in December. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 3.85% and 3.85%. Charged Expenses averaged 0.37% and 0.27% for the Crane MFA and the Crane 100. (We'll revise expenses once we upload the SEC's Form N-MFP data for 12/31/25 on Friday, 1/9.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 38 days (unchanged) and the Crane 100 WAM was unchanged from the previous month at 40 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)
The December issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Friday morning, features the articles: "Money Fund Assets Break $8.0 Trillion; Top 10 Stories of 2025," which discusses money market mutual funds reaching all-time highs; "J.P. Morgan's 2026 Outlook: Still Room for MM Growth," which quotes from JPM's expectations for next year; and "State Street I.M. Files for Stablecoin Reserves MMF," which highlights the latest money fund filing. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Friday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 11/30/25 data. Our December Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Tuesday, Dec. 9, and our December Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Friday, Dec. 12. (Note: There's still time to register for our "basic training" event, Money Fund University, which takes place Dec. 18-19 in Pittsburgh!)
MFI's "$8 Trillion" story says, "Money market mutual fund assets broke the $8.0 trillion barrier for the first time ever on Monday, Dec. 1, according to our Money Fund Intelligence Daily. Assets increased by $105.3 billion in the week through Monday (12/1) to a record $8.022 trillion, and they've since risen to $8.046 trillion (through 12/3). Money fund assets increased by $129.1 billion in November, and they've increased by $848.3 billion (11.8%) year-to-date in 2025."
The story continues, "Assets reached the $7.0 trillion level for the first time in November 2024. (See our 11/14/24 News, 'Money Fund Assets Break Over $7.0 Trillion.') Money market mutual fund assets broke the $6.0 trillion barrier in August 2023. (See our 9/28/23 News, 'Sept. MFI: Assets Break $6.0 Trillion.') They rose above $5.0 trillion for the first time in April 2020 (see our 4/30/20 News, 'Money Fund Assets Break $5.0 Trillion,' but needed a couple more years to retake that level for good."
We write in the "2026 Outlook," story, "J.P. Morgan's new 'Short-Term Fixed Income 2026 Outlook' explains, '[W]ith rates still well above 3%, cash has continued to pour into MMFs. Inflows have persisted even as the Fed cuts rates, supported by interest reinvestment, an inverted yield curve, persistent market volatility, and potentially AI-related debt raises with proceeds not yet fully deployed. MMFs have remained a preferred haven for investors seeking stability, yield, and a place to park liquidity, pushing AUMs up $736bn (or 10%) to north of $7.8tn YTD.'"
It adds, "JPM tells us, 'In 2026, we expect the Fed to cut twice more, in January and April, before going on hold, for a terminal fed funds range of 3.25-3.50%. Although MMF yields will fall commensurately, MMF AUMs are expected to continue their upward trend, albeit at a slower pace than this year, and are likely to surpass $8tn. Stablecoin balances should also continue to grow, and while it’s hard to predict approximate growth next year, we think another $90-100bn increase (similar to this year) is a reasonable base case given recent momentum following passage of the GENIUS Act and related developments.'"
Our "State Street" article says, "State Street Investment Management is the fourth money fund manager to launch a Stablecoin Reserves money market fund, following BlackRock's Circle Treasury Reserves, and Stablecoin Reserves offerings from Goldman Sachs and BNY. A Form N-1A Registration Statement for the pending State Street Stablecoin Reserves Money Market Fund tells us, 'The investment objective of State Street Stablecoin Reserves Money Market Fund ... is to seek a high level of current income consistent with preserving principal and liquidity and the maintenance of a stable $1.00 per share net asset value. The Fund, which is advised by SSGA Funds Management, Inc., invests in assets in which payment stablecoin issuers are permitted to invest in under a U.S. law enacted in July 2025 designed to establish a framework of these issuers and any regulation adopted thereunder (the 'GENIUS Act').'"
It continues, "These eligible investments include U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds ... with a remaining maturity of 93 days or less <b:>`_… as well as repurchase agreements secured by U.S. Treasury Obligations. The Fund may invest in any other assets that qualify as eligible investments under the GENIUS Act (and any regulations thereunder) and that are permitted under Rule 2a-7 for a government money market fund. `The Fund does not invest in stablecoins. The Fund may hold a portion of its assets in cash pending investment, to satisfy redemption requests or to meet the Fund's other cash management needs."
MFI also includes the News brief, "Assets Soar to Record $7.65 Trillion." It says, "ICI's separate weekly report shows money fund assets jumping by $86.8 billion to $7.654 trillion after increasing by $45.5 billion last week. MMF assets are up by $883 billion, or 13.0%, over the past 52 weeks (through 12/3/25), with Institutional MMFs up $525 billion, or 12.9% and Retail MMFs up $358 billion, or 13.3%."
Another News brief, "HSBC Launches GBP, EUR MM ETFs," comments, "A press release, 'HSBC Asset Management Launches First ETF Share Classes for EU-Regulated Money Market Funds,' tells us, 'HSBC Asset Management ... announces the launch of new ETF share classes for its existing HSBC Sterling Liquidity and HSBC Euro Liquidity Funds <b:>`_…. The development marks the first time an asset manager in Europe has launched `ETF share classes within existing EU-regulated Money Market Funds (MMFs).'"
A third News brief, "Treasury Holdings Jump," says: "Our November Money Fund Portfolio Holdings, with data as of Oct. 31, 2025, show that holdings of Treasuries jumped while Repo exposure inched lower. Treasuries, the largest portfolio composition segment, increased by $180.5 billion to $3.397 trillion, or 43.8% of holdings. Repo, the second largest segment, decreased $6.0 billion in October to $2.757 trillion, or 35.6% of holdings. Agencies were the third largest segment, and CP remained fourth, ahead of CDs, Other/Time Deposits and VRDNs."
A sidebar, "PFII: LGIPs Nearly $1 Trillion," says, "The Public Funds Investment Institute posted a brief titled, '2024 LGIP Survey: LGIPs Hold Nearly $1 Trillion of Public Funds.' It explains, 'This year we expanded our survey to include local sponsored LGIPs. In total we identified 161 portfolios. They operate in all but seven states. The survey is the only comprehensive look at the LGIP industry which invests assets for thousands of public units across the country.'"
Our December MFI XLS, with November 30 data, shows total assets rose $129.3 billion to a record high $7.989 trillion, after increasing $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 in April and $4.6 billion in March. Assets increased $90.4 billion in February, $47.9 billion in January and $113.0 billion last December.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was down 11 bps at 3.68%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was down 11 bps at 3.78% in November. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 4.05% and 4.05%. Charged Expenses averaged 0.37% 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 11/30/25 on Monday, 12/8.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 38 days (down 2 days) and the Crane 100 WAM was down 1 day from the previous month at 40 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)