Link of The Day
Fed Minutes on Rates, RRP, Rise
The latest "Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee" state, "Regarding monetary policy expectations, the manager observed that market participants and respondents to the Open Market Desk Survey of Market Expectations (Desk survey) generally expected no change in the target range of the federal funds rate at the June FOMC meeting. Market- and survey-based measures of expected policy rates moved higher over the intermeeting period. In the Desk survey, the median of the modal paths of the federal funds rate implied no changes in the target range through the beginning of 2027 and one rate cut in the second quarter of next year. Market pricing suggested that one rate hike was priced for mid-2027, but the manager noted that these measures were likely boosted, in part, by term premiums." They also tell us, "The manager observed that money market conditions were generally stable, although conditions softened notably early in the intermeeting period before they partially rebounded. In particular, repurchase agreement (repo) rates dropped to 15 basis points below the interest rate on reserve balances in mid-May. Consistent with that drop, the effective federal funds rate declined 2 basis points, the first such change since November. There was modest take-up of the Federal Reserve's overnight reverse repurchase agreement operations on days when repo rates were especially low, confirming that those operations were effective in firming the floor under money market rates. Regarding the decline in repo rates early in the period, the manager noted several likely driving factors: Reserves increased following the seasonal low around the April tax date as the Treasury General Account dropped, reserve management purchases added reserves and reduced the bill supply available to the public, U.S. global systemically important banks likely increased intermediation capacity in response to regulatory changes earlier in the year, the demand for repo financing on the part of levered investors declined, and seasonal increases in cash investments of government-sponsored enterprises coincided with the lowest rates seen over the intermeeting period. The manager noted that, these developments notwithstanding, the level of reserves in the system appeared to remain within a range consistent with an ample supply." The Minutes say, "Over the intermeeting period, the market-implied expected path of the federal funds rate and nominal Treasury yields moved higher as stronger-than-expected economic data reinforced expectations that economic activity would remain resilient. The market-implied path of the policy rate over the latter half of this year increased during the intermeeting period, and related measures of uncertainty about the path of policy rose, partly reflecting a higher term premium. The rise in nominal Treasury yields, most notable at shorter maturities, reflected higher real rates. Short-term market-based measures of inflation compensation declined significantly but stayed at a slightly elevated level. Market-based measures of longer-term inflation compensation and survey-based measures of inflation expectations remained well anchored." They add, "Conditions in U.S. short-term funding markets remained stable. Aggregate bank reserves moved up following the previous period's tax receipt–driven decline. Money market rates ended the period slightly lower, on net, amid continued low bill supply. In support of the Committee's dual-mandate goals, all members agreed to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 3-1/2 to 3-3/4 percent and to reaffirm the FOMC's policy of maintaining ample reserves in the banking system. Members also agreed that the statement would not repeat the language that had suggested an easing bias regarding the likely direction of the Committee's future interest rate decisions. Members noted that there had been little change in the unemployment rate and solid growth in economic activity, but that inflation remained elevated relative to the Committee's 2 percent goal. Against this backdrop, members concurred that the post-meeting statement would convey the Committee's commitment to achieving its dual-mandate goals and emphasize that the Committee will deliver price stability."
The Investment Company Institute's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money fund assets increasing $5.2 billion to a record $7.953 trillion, after jumping $47.7 billion the previous week. MMF assets are up by $881 billion, or 12.5%, over the past 52 weeks (through 7/8/26), with Institutional MMFs up $700 billion, or 16.8% and Retail MMFs up $180 billion, or 6.2%. Year-to-date in 2026, MMF assets are up by $220 billion, or 2.8%, with Institutional MMFs up $206 billion, or 4.4% and Retail MMFs up $14 billion, or 0.5%. ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $5.23 billion to $7.95 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, July 8, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $7.76 billion and prime funds increased by $112 million. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $2.64 billion.” ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $0.8 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $4.4 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $6.564 trillion (82.5% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.241 trillion (15.6%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $148.2 billion (1.9%). It explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $4.41 billion to $3.09 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $3.13 billion to $1.97 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.70 billion to $989.04 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $1.42 billion to $135.46 billion." Retail assets account for 38.9% of the total, and Government Retail assets make up 63.6% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $827 million to $4.86 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $4.63 billion to $4.60 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $2.59 billion to $252.27 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $1.22 billion to $12.77 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 61.1% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 94.5% of all institutional MMF totals. According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have increased by $39.3 billion to $8.389 trillion month-to-date in July (as of 7/8), assets reached an all-time high of $8.404 trillion on July 6. Assets increased $58.6 billion in June, $208.6 billion in May, decreased by $108.8 billion in April, $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 last July. 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.
BNY's Velis on T-Bills, Money Markets
BNY's John Velis and David Tam write on "Increasing T-Bill Issuance and Money Markets" in their latest "Short Thoughts." They tell us, "Increased T-bill supply for coming months has been identified as a driver for higher SOFR rates going forward, but we think there's a mitigating factor if the market continues to price out the most hawkish of expectations for the FOMC for the rest of 2026.... [T]he 3m term SOFR spread of the 3m T-bill rate has nearly halved since the post-June FOMC pop in hawkish pricing. We think that moderation in the labor data and short-term relief in consumer prices can keep these spreads from widening much further. Net bill issuance between July and September has averaged nearly $500bn over the past three years, while issuance in the April to June period has been negative by about $90bn.... [I]t's likely that Treasury's borrowing needs will require additional boosts to bill auctions over the next several months." The piece asks, "Will this push SOFR rates even higher, as many have argued? As mentioned above, we think that Fed expectations could soften.... The real question over the next few months, as expected T-bill issuance increases, is whether or not it can be comfortably absorbed by the market. There has been some reluctance by money market mutual funds (MMFs) to move out the curve and increase weighted average maturity, given still-present expectations of a rate hike, and this might have impacted demand for recent auctions. BNY adds, "However, with MMFs continuing to post record AUMs and cash preferences, we don't think the expected ramp up in supply will have too much trouble finding buys, especially if Fed rate expectations come in lower – a data driven process we'll be watching.... [R]eal money demand for T-bills is nearly inelastic, a robust result that held before, during and after the pandemic. We would be wary that any spread widening will be long-lived and expect the market to absorb increased supply."
Weekly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings
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 July 3) includes Holdings information from 48 money funds (down 27 from a week ago), or $3.629 trillion (down from $4.784 trillion) of the $8.315 trillion in total money fund assets (or 43.6%) 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 June 10 News, "June MF Portfolio Holdings: Assets Jump; Treasuries Surge, Repo Up.") Our latest Weekly MFPH Composition summary shows Government assets dominating the holdings list with Treasuries totaling $1.654 trillion (down from $2.079 trillion a week ago), or 45.6%; Repurchase Agreements (Repo) totaling $1.251 trillion (down from $1.759 trillion a week ago), or 34.5%, and Government Agency securities totaling $383.1 billion (down from $519.3 billion a week ago), or 10.6%. Commercial Paper (CP) totaled $131.2 billion (down from $179.8 billion a week ago), or 3.6%. Certificates of Deposit (CDs) totaled $82.2 billion (down from $99.7 billion a week ago), or 2.3%. The Other category accounted for $65.5 billion or 1.8%, while VRDNs accounted for $62.8 billion or 1.7%. The Ten Largest Issuers in our Weekly Holdings product include: the US Treasury with $1.654 trillion, Fixed Income Clearing Corp with $432.7B, the Federal Home Loan Bank with $255.7B, JP Morgan with $132.1B, Citi with $100.0B, Wells Fargo with $91.4B, RBC with $79.5B, BNP Paribas with $72.2B, Federal Farm Credit Bank with $66.8B and Bank of America with $41.7B. The Ten Largest Funds tracked in our latest Weekly include: JPMorgan 100% US Trs MM ($328.5B), JPMorgan US Govt MM ($328.0B), Goldman Sachs FS Govt ($281.3B), Fidelity Inv MM: Govt Port ($280.8B), Morgan Stanley Inst Liq Govt ($209.9B), BlackRock Lq FedFund ($190.1B), BlackRock Lq Treas Tr ($185.5B), Fidelity Inv MM: MM Port ($160.4B), Dreyfus Govt Cash Mgmt ($155.7B) and Allspring Govt MM ($134.3B). (Let us know if you'd like to see our latest domestic U.S. and/or "offshore" Weekly Portfolio Holdings collection and summary.)
Crane 100 Index Inches Up to 3.47%
Money fund yields (7-day, annualized, simple, net) were up 1 bp at 3.47% on average during the week ended Thursday, July 2 (as measured by our Crane 100 Money Fund Index), after going unchanged the week prior. Fund yields hadn'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 prior. Yields were 3.44% on 5/31/26, 3.47% on 3/31, 3.58% on 12/31/25, 3.94% on 9/30/25, 4.13% on 6/30/25, 4.14% on 3/31/25 and 4.28% on average on 12/31/24. MMFs averaged 5.20% on 12/31/23. The broader Crane Money Fund Average, which includes all taxable funds tracked by Crane Data (currently 716), shows a 7-day yield of 3.37%, up 1 bp 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 3.46%. Treasury Inst MFs were up 1 bp at 3.44%. Treasury Retail MFs currently yield 3.21%, Government Retail MFs yield 3.19% and Prime Retail MFs yield 3.38%, Tax-exempt MF 7-day yields were down 37 bps to 1.93%. Money market mutual fund assets hit an all-time record high of $8.385 trillion on July 1. The previous record of $8.370 trillion was seen two weeks prior (6/16), according to our Money Fund Intelligence Daily. Assets have decreased $46.2 billion in the week through Thursday, and they've decreased by $35.4 billion in July month-to-date (through 7/2). MMF assets increased by $58.6 billion in June, $208.6 billion in May, decreased by $108.8 billion in April, $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 last July. Weighted average maturities were at 39 days for the Crane MFA and 42 days the Crane 100 Money Fund Index. According to Monday's Money Fund Intelligence Daily, with data as of Thursday (7/2), just 168 money funds (out of 827 total) yield under 3.0% with $223.6 billion in assets, or 2.7%, while the vast majority (659) of funds yield between 3.00% and 3.99% ($8.091 trillion, or 97.3%). No funds yield over 4.0%. Our Brokerage Sweep Intelligence Index, an average of FDIC-insured cash options from major brokerages, was unchanged at 0.29%, after falling 1 bp six weeks prior. The latest Brokerage Sweep Intelligence, with data as of July 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.
ICI: MMFs Hit Record $7.95 Trillion
The Investment Company Institute's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money fund assets jumping $47.7 billion to a record $7.948 trillion, after falling $18.9 billion the previous week. MMF assets are up by $870 billion, or 12.3%, over the past 52 weeks (through 7/1/26), with Institutional MMFs up $691 billion, or 16.6% and Retail MMFs up $179 billion, or 6.1%. Year-to-date in 2026, MMF assets are up by $215 billion, or 2.8%, with Institutional MMFs up $205 billion, or 4.4% and Retail MMFs up $10 billion, or 0.3%. ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $47.71 billion to $7.95 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, July 1, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $34.11 billion and prime funds increased by $11.36 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $2.24 billion.” ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $44.1 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $3.6 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $6.556 trillion (82.5% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.241 trillion (15.6%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $150.9 billion (1.9%). It explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $3.60 billion to $3.09 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $1.12 billion to $1.96 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $1.25 billion to $986.34 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.23 billion to $136.88 billion." Retail assets account for 38.8% of the total, and Government Retail assets make up 63.6% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $44.11 billion to $4.86 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $32.99 billion to $4.59 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $10.11 billion to $254.86 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.01 billion to $13.99 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 61.2% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 94.5% of all institutional MMF totals. According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have increased by $35.0 billion to a record high $8.385 trillion month-to-date in July (as of 7/1). Assets increased $58.6 billion in June, $208.6 billion in May, decreased by $108.8 billion in April, $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 last July. 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.
PFII: What's in Store for Rest of 2026
Marty Margolis's latest Public Funds Investment Institute posting is titled, "Halftime: What's in Store for the Balance of 2026?" It explains, "Last week's Crane Money Fund Symposium brought together portfolio managers who invest assets in the $8 trillion money market fund industry along with those who invest portfolios for the major banks. It's a small number of people whose views on the economy and investment markets are incredibly important in setting the course for short-term interest rates. The symposium came on the heels of the first Federal Open Market Committee meeting chaired by Kevin Warsh which seemed to mark the beginning of a new direction for monetary policy. The timing and the audience provided an opportunity to consider the path of the short-term fixed income market for the balance of 2026." It summarizes, "With that in mind here are key themes that came out of the meeting: The Fed Will Raise Rates. The consensus of portfolio managers seemed to be for one or two 25 basis point increases in the Federal Reserve's target rate (currently 3.50%-3.75%) over the balance of 2026. Bank and broker economists at the symposium, many of whom are regularly on Bloomberg, CNBC and on investor roadshows had a wider dispersion of views, from forecasts of unchanged rates to those who foresee three increases. Portfolio managers leaned toward the mild side. One or two increases would be a big change from the outlook early in 2026, when federal funds futures contracts predicted an overnight rate of 3% or less by year-end, but persistent inflation and a slow but positive expansion of economic activity have led to the adjustment." The piece also says, "A Surge in Treasury Bill Supply Will Dominate the Second Half of 2026," stating, "Treasury is expected to issue $800 billion(!) of bills over the next six months to fund the federal deficit. It will increase outstanding bill supply by about 12%. This may seem like a striking figure, but it's in line with issuance last year. If you are a buyer/investor more supply is a positive as it should put modest upward pressure on yields." Margolis updste adds, "Market participants expect that money funds will continue to absorb much of the supply with their assets extending the pace of recent growth. Bill issuance over the past several years has been matched by growth in money fund assets." Finally, the article tells us, "The Prospect of More Bills Could Put Modest Upward Pressure on Money Market Yields." It says, "Bank deposit rates and commercial paper rates could rise to add spread to comparable bill rates. Financial institutions will want to assure funding in the face of the bill onslaught and also position for the end of the year when funding normally gets more challenging. Some evidence of spread widening already has shown up in levels posted by banks for maturities of six months or more, and this spread widening could continue in coming weeks.... Market participants are buzzing about stable coins, tokenized money fund shares and money fund ETFs but these innovations remain on the fringe. Either the technologies are still in formation, or the business case is lacking, and they are not seen as impacting the markets, at least in the short run."
Yahoo on Invesco Stablecoin Reserves
A posting on Yahoo Finance, "Invesco Targets Stablecoin Reserves With New Tokenized Money Market Fund," explains, "Invesco ($IVZ) is moving deeper into the stablecoin reserve market with a new tokenized money market fund aimed at issuers looking for compliant, yield-bearing cash management. The $2.45 trillion asset manager filed an amended registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 24 to add the Invesco Stablecoin Reserves Onchain Fund to its Short-Term Investments Trust. The fund does not yet have a ticker and is expected to become effective about 60 days after the filing, unless regulators intervene." The piece says, "Superstate's role gives the product its onchain layer. The filing describes a blockchain-integrated recordkeeping system that combines off-chain book-entry records with digital representations of fund shares on designated public blockchains. Wallets must be registered and verified, keeping the product closer to permissioned institutional infrastructure than open crypto trading." The story adds, "The filing adds Invesco to a growing group of Wall Street firms positioning money market funds as stablecoin reserve infrastructure. The category has become more attractive as stablecoin legislation gives issuers a clearer map for eligible reserves, while tokenized fund platforms try to make those assets usable inside faster settlement and collateral workflows. Invesco already had a link to the sector after taking over day-to-day portfolio management of Superstate's USTB tokenized Treasury fund earlier this year." See the SEC filing for Invesco Stablecoin Reserves Onchain Fund here. For more on Stablecoin Reserve funds, see these Crane Data News stories: "Fidelity Reserves Digital Fund Goes Live" (6/23/26), "State Street Stablecoin Reserves Goes Live" (6/17/26), "Federated MMR Digital Treasury Fund" (6/10/26), "BNY Files for Dreyfus On-Chain Liquidity Fund for Stablecoin Reserves" (5/22/26), "Fidelity Files for Reserves Digital Fund, 5th Stablecoin Reserve MMF" (3/23/26), "Dec. MFI: MMFs Hit $8.0T, Top 10; JPM '26 Outlook; Stablecoin Reserves" (12/5/25), "State Street Files for Stablecoin Reserves MMF; BNY's Stephanie Pierce" (11/19/25), "BNY Stablecoin Reserves Goes Live; ICI: Assets Eke Out Record $7.5T" (11/14/25),"BNY's Vince on Q3 Call: Money Market Evolution, Dreyfus, Stablecoins" (10/22/25), "BlackRock Breaks $1 Trillion in Money Funds; Offers Stablecoin Reserve" (10/17/25), "Sept. MFI: Assets Break $7.6T; Stablecoin Reserves; JPM on Offshore MFs" (9/8/25), "BNY Dreyfus to Launch Stablecoin Reserves Fund; Joins Goldman, Circle" (8/20) and "Goldman Files to Launch Stablecoin Reserves Fund; Circle Q2 Earnings" (8/13/25).
IN: MS Hikes Advisory Sweep Rate
Investment News writes, "Morgan Stanley boosts returns on client cash, analyst says." The article tells us, "Morgan Stanley last week increased yields on cash held in advisory accounts, according to a report by an industry analyst, two-and-a-half years after large firms began facing questions on whether they were short-changing clients on interest rates." They quote Steven Chubak, managing director of Wolfe Research, "Morgan Stanley raised deposit rates on investment advisory accounts to 3.6%, from 2.2% previously." The piece continues, "A spokesperson for Morgan Stanley declined to comment. Since 2023, large firms have been facing penalties and questions from regulators over interest rates for clients' cash accounts." Investment News explains, "Following news of Morgan Stanley's bump in interest rates to clients' cash holdings, Friday saw a selloff more broadly in wealth management and brokerage stocks, Chubak noted. Large wealth management firms see revenues and profits from cash held in clients accounts. A higher payout to clients would mean less profits from cash sweep accounts." The piece adds, "The share price of Morgan Stanley declined 4% to $212.03, while LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and Stifel Financial Corp. dropped 3.1%, respectively, to $268.75 per share and $69.27 per share. The Securities and Exchange Commission last year ended its investigation into Morgan Stanley's advisory cash sweep program without pursuing any enforcement action. The closure of the probe brought to an end more than a year of scrutiny by the SEC's enforcement division, which since April 2024 had sought information regarding how uninvested client cash was swept into affiliated bank deposit accounts." (Note: According to our latest Brokerage Sweep Intelligence, Morgan Stanley is only paying the 3.6% rate on balances over $250K.)
NY Fed's Williams' Symposium Speech
An Editor's Note explains, "New York Fed President John C. Williams prepared the following remarks for delivery on Thursday, June 25 at the Crane's Money Fund Symposium. President Williams was not able to participate in the event, and the speech was not delivered publicly. We have published the text of his remarks here at the originally scheduled time." The text of the speech, "The Strategy and the Goals," states, "It's an exciting time here in New Jersey. Just 10 miles away, more than 80,000 soccer fans are packed into MetLife Stadium for the World Cup. In fact, the match is set to start in about 20 minutes -- just as Pete will be grilling me about the U.S. economy and monetary policy. I can assure you that our conversation will be even more thrilling than the game. The seats are cheaper, too. Today I'm going to talk about how the Federal Reserve is working to achieve its dual mandate goals of maximum employment and price stability. I'll also spend some time talking about how the Fed implements monetary policy." Williams says, "Given the elevated level of inflation, it is imperative that we restore it to our 2 percent longer-run goal on a sustained basis. The current stance of monetary policy is well positioned to do that. Accordingly, at its meeting last week, the FOMC decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 3-1/2 to 3-3/4 percent in support of the Fed's dual mandate." He later explains, "These administered rates help establish a floor and a ceiling for the federal funds rate. One, the interest rate on reserve balances, is the tool that helps set the floor, and another, the overnight reverse repo -- or ON RRP -- is the tool that reinforces it. Usage of the ON RRP adjusts automatically to market conditions, rising and falling with supply and demand, which is particularly important in a dynamic market. It has proven to be a very effective and flexible tool to support interest rate control to the downside." Williams adds, "The Fed's standing repo operations -- or SRPs -- help establish a ceiling for the federal funds rate. The SRP rate is set at the top of the FOMC's target range for the federal funds rate and provides interest rate control to the upside. This combination of an ample supply of reserves and an SRP rate at the top of the target range reduces the day-to-day reliance on these operations -- except during periods of significant upward pressure on rates that result from strong liquidity demand or market stress. By ensuring that adequate liquidity will be available in a wide variety of circumstances, SRPs are a critical tool used to cap temporary upward pressure on rates. It assures markets of effective interest rate control and smooth market functioning." See also from our recent Money Fund Symposium, "The Fed's Balance Sheet and Desk Money Market Operations from Dina Marchioni, Director of Money Markets at the New York Fed.
ICI: Money Funds Dip to $7.90 Trillion
The Investment Company Institute's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money fund assets falling $18.9 billion to $7.900 trillion, after jumping $39.7 billion to a record $7.919 trillion the previous week. MMF assets are up by $877 billion, or 12.5%, over the past 52 weeks (through 6/24/26), with Institutional MMFs up $690 billion, or 16.7% and Retail MMFs up $187 billion, or 6.5%. Year-to-date in 2026, MMF assets are up by $167 billion, or 2.2%, with Institutional MMFs up $161 billion, or 3.4% and Retail MMFs up $6 billion, or 0.2%. ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $18.91 billion to $7.90 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, June 24, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $18.15 billion and prime funds decreased by $1.06 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $297 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs decreasing $17.0 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $1.9 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $6.522 trillion (82.6% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.230 trillion (15.6%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $148.6 billion (1.9%). It explains, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $1.90 billion to $3.08 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $1.81 billion to $1.96 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.42 billion to $985.10 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.33 billion to $135.65 billion." Retail assets account for 39.0% of the total, and Government Retail assets make up 63.7% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $17.01 billion to $4.82 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $16.35 billion to $4.56 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $366 million to $244.74 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $1.03 billion to $12.98 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 61.0% 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 $44.4 billion to $8.336 trillion month-to-date in June (as of 6/24). Assets hit a record high on June 16 of $8.370 trillion. Assets increased $208.6 billion in May, decreased by $108.8 billion in April, $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 and $6.7 billion last June. 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.
Federated Debuts Ultrashort Bond ETF
Another press release, "Federated Hermes launches active, short-duration fixed-income ETF," states, "Federated Hermes, Inc. (FHI) ... introduced Federated Hermes Ultrashort Bond ETF (FUSD), designed for investors seeking higher yields in an uncertain interest rate environment. Federated Hermes Ultrashort Bond ETF pursues its objective of providing total return consistent with current income by investing primarily in a diversified portfolio of investment-grade debt securities. The ETF seeks to offer a competitive and attractive yield while minimizing interest rate risk by limiting its effective duration to one year or less." It explains, "The portfolio management team -- led by Nicholas Tripodes, CFA, senior portfolio manager and head of the Low Duration Multisector Group; Daniel Mastalski, CFA, portfolio manager; and Bradley Payne, portfolio manager -- actively adjusts positioning as market conditions evolve, drawing on the collective insights of Federated Hermes' fixed income leadership and sector specialists. Portfolio construction is guided by the firm's established fixed-income framework, which emphasizes sector allocation, security selection and interest-rate positioning, seeking diversified sources of alpha rather than reliance on any single market factor. Federated Hermes manages $42.9 billion in short-duration fixed-income assets as of March 31, 2026." Paul A. Uhlman, president and CEO of the Federated Advisory Companies, comments, "We offer a comprehensive suite of investment solutions across the full investment horizon to help meet the evolving needs of our clients. Through active allocation across high‑quality, short‑term fixed-income sectors, Federated Hermes Ultrashort Bond ETF offers a disciplined step beyond traditional cash alternatives while avoiding long‑duration risk." ETF business director at Federated Hermes Brandon Clark adds, "With more than 55 years of fixed-income investing experience, Federated Hermes is known for disciplined credit research, management stability and a repeatable investment process. Federated Hermes Ultrashort Bond ETF reflects that long history of short-duration fixed-income strategies with the outperformance potential, tactical flexibility, tax efficiency, transparency, liquidity and ease of use of active ETFs."
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