Money Fund Intelligence XLS
Franklin Resources, manager of the Western Asset and Putnam funds, also released W2'25 earnings and hosted its latest earnings call last week. President & CEO Jenny Johnson comments, "Money market balances have continued to grow as the Federal Reserve holds the target overnight rate at about 4%. We've had cash management net inflows for 4 out of the 5 last quarters, with $2.7 billion in each of the last 2 quarters, increasing our cash management AUM to $72 billion.... This quarter, we launched an intraday yield feature on Benji, our tokenized money market fund, making investing faster more transparent and accessible 24/7. This is another example of how Franklin Templeton has always been at the forefront of change, whether it's providing investors with access to new investment opportunities improving how they manage their money or leveraging new technology to make it more efficient." During the Q&A, she says, "We think that it will fundamentally change the rails of the financial system. So why do we think that? Let me just use our tokenized money market fund as an example. So we launched this in 2021. We are still the only asset manager in the world who provides digitally native exposure on-chain as opposed to shadowing ... from your old system shadowing onto the blockchain. That gives us a lot of additional capability that enhances what we can do for clients with that single product." Johnson explains, "So we just launched intraday yield. If you hold our Benji money market fund, you will see what you earned that day, and it will be posted to your account that same day. if you use the Benji product as collateral and you only hold it for 4 hours and 32 minutes, you're going to get 4 hours and 32 minutes of yield. So it's really because blockchain is so efficient that it enables those enhanced services. When we say, and when the SEC approved that product, they had us run [a parallel process], and we're still running the transfer agency in-house.... And we were astonished even by the difference in cost to actually run transactions on chain versus on the old transfer agency system." Johnson adds, "So we've built an ecosystem in there. As I mentioned on the Benji platform, we actually got a patent on our wallet. Right now, you download it from the Apple Store, but we really have designed it because we think it could be white labeled by others. And right now, that wallet ... and the Benji app or the Benji token can operate actually across chain on 8 different blockchains. So as the traditional distributors start to think about how they have to deal with the crypto world and the tokenization world, they're going to look for partners. We think that will help them to navigate it, and we've built this infrastructure to do it. So that's how we're thinking about translate." Finally, she says, "Now today, we actually manage reserves for 4 stablecoin providers. Everybody is aware of Circle and USDC because it's the big elephant in the room. But there are actually other ones. We were just selected by the first state who is issuing their own stablecoin to manage that stablecoin. So today, there's been kind of a parallel world between the crypto world and the traditional finance world. Now as you get clarity around regulation like the Genius Act, you're starting to see firms be more comfortable being able to dip their toe into it. And that's where we think we can be a really important partner because, again, this -- the infrastructure that we've built, we've been building since, I think, 2018 is -- it's not going to be an easy one for people to catch up quickly. And so our ability to really private label that and have it integrated in others -- in their client platforms. Just imagine if you're a distributor, you've got your clients who are holding their crypto assets, some portion of them, probably the younger ones, are holding their assets over at Coinbase. Wouldn't you like to be able to move that over into a wallet that's integrated on your system so you can provide an entire view of the clients' investment opportunities, and that's the kind of infrastructure that we've built."
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Money Fund Intelligence XLS News
Aug 07
The August issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Thursday morning, features the articles: "BNY Portal Offers Tokenized Shares of 5 Major Managers," which reviews a recent release from LiquidityDirect; "ICD's Tory Hazard on Portals, Products & Tradeweb Buyout," which interview the Head of ICD Portal; and, "Stablecoin, Tokenization All Over Q2'25 Earnings Calls," which quotes from the latest earnings calls. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Thursday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 7/31/25 data. Our August Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Monday, August 11, and our August Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Thursday, August 14.
MFI's "BNY Portal" article says, "A press release titled, 'BNY and Goldman Sachs Launch Tokenized Money Market Funds Solution' explains, 'The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation ('BNY') (BK) ... and the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) ... announced a collaborative initiative by which BNY will employ blockchain technology developed by Goldman Sachs to maintain a record of customers' ownership of select Money Market Funds (MMFs), in a significant step towards enhancing the utility and transferability of existing MMF shares. This combined solution marks the first time in the U.S. that fund managers have enabled subscription for shares of their MMFs via BNY's LiquidityDirect and Digital Asset platforms, the corresponding value of which will be represented through mirrored record tokenization utilizing GS DAP. BlackRock, BNY Investments Dreyfus, Federated Hermes, Fidelity Investments, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management will participate in the initial launch.'"
It continues, "Laide Majiyagbe, Global Head of Liquidity, Financing and Collateral at BNY, comments, 'As the financial system transitions toward a more digital, real-time architecture, BNY is committed to enabling scalable and secure solutions that shape the future of finance. Mirrored tokenization of MMF shares is a first step in this transition, and we are proud to be at the forefront of this first-of-its-kind initiative. Our collaboration with Goldman Sachs Digital Assets highlights our role as a trusted bridge between traditional finance and emerging technologies -- empowering clients to navigate this transformation with confidence.'"
We write in our "ICD profile, "This month, MFI interviews Managing Director & Head of ICD Tory Hazard, a year after the company's buyout by Tradeweb. We discuss the portal marketplace, corporate investor issues and the latest technology initiatives with one of the industry's biggest online money fund trading portals. Our Q&A follows."
It states, "MFI: Tell us a little about your history. Hazard: ICD was founded in 2003 as the first independent investment platform focused solely on corporate treasury. From the beginning, the goal was to give treasury teams better access, transparency, and control over their short-term investments. I joined ICD in 2009, to help grow and scale the business. At the time, the idea of a digital platform for institutional money funds was still gaining traction, and it's been exciting to be part of shaping that evolution."
Our "Earnings Call" piece says, "Stablecoin and tokenization questions and comments littered bank and financial institutions' second quarter earnings calls over the past 3 weeks. We can't fit them all here, but we try and excerpt from the big ones. We also include some broad comments on cash."
The article continues, "BlackRock Chairman & CEO Larry Fink says, 'A lot of firms got out of the cash business after the financial crisis when fee waivers were in place during a sustained period of low rates. But we recognize a simple thing. Every client needs to hold cash. Cash management has been the first entry point for many of our clients, who have gone on to build large mandates with BlackRock. Our cash AUM is nearly $1 trillion.'"
MFI also includes the News brief, "Assets Climb to Another Record in July. Our MFI Daily asset series broke the $7.5 trillion barrier for the first time on August 4. (Assets rose again on 8/5 to a record $7.507 trillion.) Our MFI XLS monthly series also rose to a record $7.488 trillion in July. ICI's smaller weekly series shows assets at a near record $7.076 trillion as of last week."
Another News brief, "J.P. Morgan, Simplify File for Money Market ETFs," says, "An article from 'The Daily Upside,' titled, '`JPMorgan Files to Launch Money Market ETF,' tells us, 'The bank applied last month for SEC approval of the actively managed JPMorgan 100% US Treasury Securities Money Market ETF.... The move, along with recent money market ETF launches by Schwab and BlackRock, shows how issuers are capitalizing on investors' appetite for lower-risk options ... and ETF hype. A separate press release 'Introducing the Simplify Government Money Market ETF (SBIL),' tells us, 'Simplify Asset Management... announced a further expansion of its lineup of income-focused ETFs with the launch of the Simplify Government Money Market ETF (SBIL).'"
A third News brief titled, "Reuters Says Slew of T-Bills Coming, tells us, 'A slew of T-bills coming? Money market funds say 'bring 'em on'.' The article explains, 'More than $1 trillion in U.S. short-term bills are expected to flood the market over the next 1-1/2 years following the increase in the debt ceiling, as the Treasury replenishes its diminished cash balance.... There is, however, no shortage of buyers, with money market funds leading the way. Armed with a record $7.4 trillion in assets as of July 1, money funds, which invest in short-term, low-risk securities such as Treasury bills and repurchase agreements, or repos, are ready to take on more supply.'"
A sidebar, "EFAMA's European Fact Book," says, "EFAMA, the European Fund and Asset Management Association, recently published its annual 'Fact Book,' which contains a section on 'Money Market Fund UCITS,' explains, 'Net assets of money market funds (MMFs) ended the year above EUR 2 tn. In 2024, net sales rose to an absolute record (EUR 226 bn), beating the previous record of pandemic year 2020 (EUR 215 bn). The surge was largely driven by an inverted yield curve, which persisted for much of 2024.... Additionally, these strong inflows suggest that some investors opted for MMFs as a cash alternative, maintaining a wait-and-see approach to weather geopolitical uncertainties."
Our August MFI XLS, with July 31 data, shows total assets rose $69.0 billion to a record high $7.488 trillion, after increasing $10.1 billion in June, jumping $90.3 billion in May, but decreasing $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 in December. Assets jumped $196.1 billion in November, $89.9 billion in October, $155.2 billion in September and $105.6 billion last August.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was up 1 bp at 4.02%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was unchanged at 4.12% in July. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 4.39% and 4.39%. 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 7/31/25 on Friday, 8/8.) 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 40 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)
Jul 08
The July issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Tuesday morning, features the articles: "Money Fund Symposium '25 Major Issues: Assets, Repo," which discusses highlights from our recent conference in Boston; "MFS Keynote: SSIM's Yie-Hsin Hung on the Future of Cash," which excerpts from the State Street Inv. Mgmt. CEO's recent speech; and, "ICI Worldwide: MMFs Rise in Q1'25 to Record $11.8 Tril." which reviews the latest figures on money fund markets outside the U.S.' We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Tuesday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 6/30/25 data. Our July Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Thursday, July 10, and our July Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Tuesday, July 15.
MFI's "Money Fund Symposium '25" article says, "Crane Data recently hosted its big Money Fund Symposium conference in Boston, where 680 money market professionals discussed rates, tokenization, asset inflows and a number of other hot topics in cash. We quote from some sessions below, and excerpt from the keynote speech at right. (Note: Recordings and conference materials are available in our 'Money Fund Symposium 2025 Download Center.')"
It continues, "In the 'Major Money Fund Issues' segment, Fidelity's Kevin Gaffney comments, 'To comment on the previous panel on tokenization, I think it is an extremely interesting area. And, as we've talked about all day long, money funds are supposed to be this kind of quiet industry that, no one really paid attention to until the last decade or so.... But one of the things I think that's come out of that is that there is new technology that, might hit our market first. I think when you look at, tokenization, it could potentially be a new horizon for money market funds. I think the blockchain technology has the possibility of adding efficiencies, lowering transactional costs, potentially adding new features to money market funds. [But] I don't know that it fundamentally changes what we do from a portfolio management standpoint.'"
We write in our "MFS Keynote article, "Money Fund Symposium's keynote session, 'The Future of Cash,' featured State Street Investment Management CEO Yie-Hsin Hung. She says, 'It's fantastic to be here with all of you. `I want to thank Peter first and foremost for everything that he does for the money fund industry. No one tracks cash better than you. And everyone here relies on your insights, your data, your wisdom in one way or another.'"
It states, "Hung continues, 'So I'm really glad to be here with all of you. And yes, even with my competitors, it's rare to have so many asset managers and industry experts all in one place. But when we do come together, there's a very good reason. Events like these give us a chance to take a big picture look where we've been, where we are, where we're headed. And I'd like to give my thoughts on that today, especially with respect to the future of cash. We think about this a lot at State Street.'"
Our "Worldwide" piece says, "ICI's latest, 'Worldwide Regulated Open-Fund Assets and Flows, First Quarter 2025,' shows that money fund assets globally rose by $246.3 billion, or 2.1%, in Q1'25 to a record $11.845 trillion. Increases were led by a sharp jump in money funds in U.S. and Luxembourg, while Ireland and Brazil also rose. Meanwhile, money funds in China and Turkey were lower. MMF assets worldwide increased by $1.404 trillion, or 13.4%, in the 12 months through 3/31/25, and money funds in the U.S. now represent 60.1% of worldwide assets. European money fund asset totals surpassed Asian MMF totals for the first time since Q4'17."
The article continues, "ICI's release says, 'Globally, equity fund assets decreased, on a US dollar-denominated basis, by 1.7% to $35.09 trillion at the end of the first quarter of 2025. At the same time, bond fund assets increased by 3.8% to $14.30 trillion; balanced fund assets increased by 1.9% to $7.43T, and money market fund assets increased by 2.1% to $11.84 trillion.'"
MFI also includes the News brief, "Assets Set New Record in Early July," which says, "Our MFI Daily asset series hit a record $7.406 trillion on July 3 (then dipped 6/4-5), its first new high since April 2. Our MFI XLS monthly series also eked out a record $7.425 trillion in June. ICI's smaller weekly series shows assets hitting a record $7.078 trillion in the latest week (ended 7/3)."
Another News brief, "SSGA Changes to SSIM," says, "A statement says, 'State Street’s global asset management business has been rebranded from 'State Street Global Advisors' to 'State Street Investment Mgmt.'"
A third News brief titled, "Circle Says Firms Will Move from Stablecoins to Tokenized Money Funds," tells us, "The Registration Statement for Stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group, warns, 'Circle Tokenized Funds are regulated yield-bearing investments for collateral use in capital markets. We believe that certain major trading firms have moved, and will increasingly move away from, using stablecoins as collateral in favor of TMMFs.'"
A sidebar, "AFP's 2025 Liquidity Survey," says, "The recently released '2025 AFP Liquidity Survey' discusses 'Current Allocations of Short-Term Investments.' AFP says, 'Companies maintain their investments in relatively few vehicles. Organizations invest in an average 2.57 vehicles for their cash and short-term investments -- slightly lower than the 2.7 average reported in 2024. Most organizations continue to allocate a large share of their short-term investment balances -- an average of 80% -- in safe and liquid investment vehicles: bank deposits, money market funds (MMFs) and Treasury securities.'"
Our July MFI XLS, with June 30 data, shows total assets rose $10.1 billion to a record high $7.425 trillion, after jumping $90.3 billion in May, decreasing $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 in December. Assets jumped $196.1 billion in November, $89.9 billion in October, $155.2 billion in September, $105.6 billion in August, and $19.7 billion last July.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was unchanged at 4.01%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was up 1 bp to 4.12% in June. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 4.38% and 4.39%. 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 6/30/25 on Wednesday, 7/9.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 38 days (up 1 day) and the Crane 100 WAM was down 1 day from the previous month at 38 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)
Jun 06
The June issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Friday morning, features the articles: "Shift from Treasuries to Repo Continues; FICC Repo Hits $1T," which discusses recent portfolio composition shifts in the MMF space; "Fed, EU Focus on Treasuries, Money Markets, NBFIs," which looks at bank regulators renewed interest in MMFs and non-banks; and, "Fitch: Liquidity LGIPs Rise to Over $430B; S&P Q1 Update" which reviews recent news on local government investment pools. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Friday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 5/31/25 data. Our June Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Tuesday, June 10, and our June Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Friday, June 13. (Note: Register ASAP for our upcoming Crane's Money Fund Symposium, which is in just over 2 weeks -- June 23-25 -- in Boston!)
MFI's "Shift from Treasuries" article says, "The U.S. Treasury's Office of Financial Research (OFR) published a blog piece titled, 'OFR's MMF Monitor Shows Reduced Federal Reserve ON RRP Use.' It states, 'In Q1 2025, U.S. money market funds (MMFs) experienced strong cash inflows from retail and institutional investors that pushed assets to $7.4 trillion by quarter-end, according to OFR's U.S. Money Market Fund Monitor data. Investors sought relative safety from broader market volatility and benefited from the yield advantage generally offered by MMFs over alternative investment products.'"
It continues, "They write, 'MMFs also lowered their exposure to U.S. Treasury securities and increased their repurchase agreement (repo) allocation to over $2.8 trillion.... The change primarily reflected high repo rates and a net decrease in U.S. Treasury issuance. The U.S. Department of the Treasury is conserving its borrowing authority until the federal debt limit is raised or suspended.'"
We write in our "Fed, EU Focus article, "After a period of silence, bank regulators appear to be focusing once more upon money market funds and other non-bank players in the financial markets. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Lorie Logan recently 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."
It states, "Logan 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.'"
Our "LGIP" piece says, "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 article continues, "It says, '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.'"
MFI also includes the News brief, "Assets Hit Record $7.4 Trillion." It states, "Our MFI Daily asset series hit a record $7.406 trillion on June 3 (then dipped 6/4). Our MFI XLS monthly series hit a record $7.408 trillion in May. ICI's smaller weekly series shows assets retaking $7.0 trillion in the latest week." (See today's Link of the Day.)
Another News brief, "SEC Webinar Cites Money Funds," says, "Former Director of the SEC's Division of Investment Management Joel Goldberg cited money funds' survival from regulatory extinction in the early 1970's as the most important development in fund regulations. Barry Barbash also reviewed money funds' troubles during the Great Financial Crisis, and the webinar discussed tokenized MMFs."
A third News brief titled, "Portfolio Holdings: FICC Repo Hits $1T, T-Bills Drop," tells us, "Our May Money Fund Portfolio Holdings, with data as of April 30, 2025, show that holdings of Repo jumped last month while Treasuries declined. 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."
A sidebar, "Stradley Reviews MMF Regs," says, "Stradley Ronon Partner Jamie Gershkow and Associate Geena Marzouca recently published, 'Are We Trying to Kill Institutional Prime Funds? -- Money Market Funds in a Post Reform Era.' It explains, '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? [T]his article looks at whether Commissioner Peirce’s concern became reality and assesses the overall impact of the reforms on the money market fund industry. [It] 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 funds under amended Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (1940 Act).'"
Our June MFI XLS, with May 31 data, shows total assets jumped $90.3 billion to a record high $7.408 trillion, after decreasing $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 in December. Assets jumped $196.1 billion in November, $89.9 billion in October, $155.2 billion in September, $105.6 billion in August, $19.7 billion in July and $11.8 billion last June.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was down 1 bp to 4.01%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was down 2 bps to 4.11% in May. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 4.38% and 4.38%. 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 5/31/25 on Monday, 6/9.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 37 days (up 3 days) and the Crane 100 WAM was up 5 days from the previous month at 39 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)
Apr 07
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.
MFI's "Money Market ETF" article says, "It looks like we'll soon have a fourth 'money market' ETF offering. A Form N-1A Registration filing for the Schwab Government Money Market ETF (SGVT) tells us, 'The fund intends to operate as a government money market fund under the regulations governing money market funds. The fund will invest at least 99.5% of its total assets in cash, government securities and/or repurchase agreements.'"
The filing explains, "Although the fund intends to operate as a 'government money market fund,' it will not seek to maintain a stable net asset value ('NAV') per share nor will it use amortized cost.... Instead, the fund will calculate its NAV ... based on the market value of its investments. In addition, unlike a traditional money fund, the fund operates as an exchange traded fund ('ETF'). As an ETF, the fund's shares will be traded on the [NYSE] exchange and will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in NAV as well as the relative supply of, and demand for, shares on the [NYSE]. You could lose money by investing."
We write in our BFS '25 article, "Crane Data recently hosted its latest Bond Fund Symposium in Newport Beach, Calif. The keynote talk, 'Ultra‐Short Bond Funds: Surf's Finally Up,' featured J.P. Morgan Securities' Teresa Ho, PIMCO's Jerome Schneider and J.P. Morgan Asset Management's Dave Martucci. Ho explains, 'What we're going to do ... is just give a high-level review of the short-term bond fund space from a performance perspective, flows, asset allocation. I'll ask Jerome and Dave to weigh in on some of these topics and ... give a sense of some of the things that they're seeing, and after that I'll follow up with a brief comment on other ultra-short investors.' (Note: Thanks again to those who supported BFS! Attendees and Crane Data subscribers may access the binder, PPTs and recordings via our 'Bond Fund Symposium 2025 Download Center.')"
It states, "She continues, 'So just to set the scene ... 2024 was certainly a great year for ultra-short bond funds. They generated returns greater than 5% for all of 2024.... They outperformed the longer-duration strategies, and they also outperformed money market funds.... But with that being said, it certainly wasn't without its volatility.... So clearly, a lot of the flow movement is driven by returns -- performance does drive flows in this particular space. But through it all ... it was still a positive year for the short-term fixed income space."
Our "Worldwide" piece says, "The Investment Company Institute published, 'Worldwide Regulated Open-Fund Assets and Flows, Fourth Quarter 2024,' which shows that money fund assets globally rose by $382.8 billion, or 3.4%, in Q4'24 to a record $11.598 trillion. (The totals would have been $11.871 trillion if Australia and New Zealand had been included.) Increases were led by a sharp jump in money funds in U.S. and Luxembourg, while Ireland and China also rose. Meanwhile, money funds in France and Korea were lower. MMF assets worldwide increased by $1.157 trillion, or 11.1%, in the 12 months through 12/31/24, and money funds in the U.S. now represent 59.1% of worldwide assets."
The piece continues, "ICI's release says, 'Worldwide regulated open-end fund assets, excluding assets in funds of funds, decreased 1.5% to $73.86 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024. Worldwide net cash inflows to all funds were $1.3 trillion in the fourth quarter, compared with $912 billion of net inflows in the third quarter of 2024. 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.'"
MFI also includes the News brief, "Assets Flat in March, Return to Records in Early April. Crane Data's MFI Daily and ICI's latest weekly 'Money Market Mutual Fund Assets' show money fund assets jumping to record levels in early April, while our MFI XLS monthly shows a tiny asset dip in March. MFI XLS shows assets down $4.6 billion to $7.327 trillion in March, while our MFI Daily shows assets jumping $60.2 billion in April (through 4/3) to a record $7.384 billion.”
Another News brief, "Returns on Cash Remain Compelling," says, "The Boston Globe asks in a brief titled, 'Cash on the barrelhead,' 'Is there a sliver of a silver lining to this five-week stock market slide? Yes -- if you're sitting on extra cash and would like a safe place to stash it at a decent interest rate. Thanks to a cautious Fed ... returns on cash-like holdings remain compelling. Though rates on savings accounts, money market funds, and short-term Treasuries have dipped from their 2023 highs, they're still hanging in around 4 to 4.5%.'"
A third News brief, "State Street Global Advisors' (SSGA) asks, 'Why Is Cash Piling Up?'" states, "Will Goldthwait explains, 'As we move through a period of extreme uncertainty in Washington, it is no surprise that the markets are showing signs of anxiety.'"
A sidebar, "Tokenization Crazy Chain," says, "New press releases and product announcements in the tokenization and stablecoin world are coming out fast and furious. One, titled, 'ICE and Circle Sign MOU to Explore Product Innovation Based on Circle’s USDC and USYC Digital Assets,' tells us, 'Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, and Circle Internet Group, Inc., a global financial technology company and stablecoin market leader, ... announced an agreement whereby ICE plans to explore using Circle's stablecoin USDC, as well as tokenized money market offering US Yield Coin (USYC), to develop new products and solutions for its customers.'"
Our April MFI XLS, with March 31 data, shows total assets decreased $4.6 billion to $7.327 trillion, after increasing $90.4 billion in February, $47.9 billion in January, $113.0 billion in December, $196.1 billion in November, $89.9 billion in October, $155.2 billion in September, $105.6 billion in August, $19.7 billion in July, $11.8 billion in June and $79.7 billion in May. They decreased $17.6 billion last April and $66.7 billion in March 2024.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was down 1 bp to 4.04%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was down 1 bp to 4.15% in February. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 4.41% and 4.41%. 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 3/31/25 on Tuesday, 4/8.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 34 days (down 1 day) and the Crane 100 WAM was down 1 day from the previous month at 36 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)