The October issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Tuesday morning, features the articles: "Wall of Cash, Levels of Cash Debate Heats Up; Still Going," which reviews the latest discussions around record MMF balances and potential outflows; "European MF Symposium Toasts Irish MMFs at $1T," which highlights our recent offshore money fund event in Dublin; and "Worldwide MMFs Jump in Q2'25 to Record $12.3 Trillion," which covers global MMF trends. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Tuesday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 9/30/25 data. Our October Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Thursday, Oct. 9, and our October Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Wednesday, Oct. 15 (a day late due to the Columbus Day Holiday).
MFI's "Wall of Cash" story says, "With the first Fed rate cut in a year, the discussions over money moving out of money market funds and the 'wall of cash' moving into the stock market have heated up. Money fund assets, though, continue surging to record highs, pouring cold water on the theory. We review the latest discussions on this theory below."
It continues, "The Wall Street Journal recently wrote, 'U.S. Investors Are Flush With Cash, and Happy to Keep It There.' The piece says, 'U.S. investors are sitting on a pile of cash. Even with rates now coming down, many are in no rush to move it. Assets in money-market funds reached a record $7.7 trillion last week, with more than $60 billion flowing into those funds during the first four days of the month, according to Crane Data.'"
We write in our "European MF Symposium" profile, "Crane Data recently hosted its 11th annual European Money Fund Symposium in Dublin, Ireland, which featured near-record attendance (195) and two days of discussions on offshore money funds denominated in USD, EUR and GBP. The event also celebrated money fund assets domiciled in Ireland breaking the $1 trillion level earlier this year (see our Worldwide story)."
It adds, "The keynote, 'Irish Funds Update: MMFs in Ireland & the EU,' featured Irish Funds' Conor Kilroy and Ruth Fairclough, and Northern Trust's Rachel Thornton. Kilroy explains, 'We were founded in 1991, so about four years before the establishment of the Irish Financial Services Centre (IFSC) ... a government initiative that was used to attract financial services to Ireland. Our mission is simple, to be the voice of the funds and asset management industry in Ireland, and our vision is to ensure that Ireland remains the premier location to enable and support global investing to its reputation for trust, capability and innovation. In terms of membership, we’re just over 150 members.'"
Our "Worldwide MMFs Jump" article says, "The Investment Company Institute's 'Worldwide Regulated Open-Fund Assets and Flows, Second Quarter 2025' shows that money fund assets globally rose by $470.2 billion, or 4.0%, in Q2'25 to a record $12.315 trillion. (The totals would have been $12.587 trillion if Australia and New Zealand had been included.) Increases were led by a sharp jump in money funds in China and Ireland, the latter which broke over $1 trillion for the first time ever."
It continues, "France and the U.S. also rose. Meanwhile, money funds in Argentina were lower. MMF assets worldwide increased by $1.672 trillion, or 15.7%, in the 12 months through 6/30/25, and money funds in the U.S. now represent 57.0% of worldwide assets."
MFI also includes the News brief, "Fed Cuts Rates to 4.0–4.25%." It says, "The Federal Reserve's FOMC cut interest rates by a quarter percent to a range of 4.0–4.25% on Sept. 17, and money market fund yields have declined from 4.10% to 3.95% in the three weeks since."
Another News brief, "Assets Hit a Record $7.75/$7.37T," writes, "ICI's weekly 'Money Market Fund Assets' report shows money fund assets surging higher by $50.5 billion to a record $7.365 trillion. MMF assets are up by $902 billion, or 14.0%, over the past 52 weeks (through 10/1/25), with Institutional MMFs up $522 billion, or 13.5% and Retail MMFs up $400 billion, or 15.4%. Crane Data's totals show MMFs hitting a record $7.76 trillion on 10/2."
A third News brief, "NY Fed Blog Says Money Funds Dominate Tokenization To Date; Stability?" says, "The Federal Reserve Bank of New York posted two briefs on tokenization on its 'Liberty Street Economics' blog. The first, 'The Emergence of Tokenized Investment Funds and Their Use Cases,' tells us, '[T]he bulk of tokenization activity in the United States has concentrated on two types of funds: money market funds (MMFs), which are open-end funds registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940... and private funds that are exempt from registration under that Act.'"
A sidebar, "Barron's: Cuts Will Hurt More," says, "Barron's writes, 'Cash Yields Are Going Down. Here's Where to Move Your Money.' The article comments, 'The Federal Reserve's expected interest-rate cuts are a double-edged sword for consumers: bad for savers, good for borrowers.... Do you have a lot of money parked in money-market funds? Are you looking to buy a house, refinance your mortgage, or whittle down credit card debt?'"
Our October MFI XLS, with September 30 data, shows total assets rose $100.4 billion to a record high $7.715 trillion, after increasing $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 in December. Assets jumped $196.1 billion in November and $89.9 billion last October.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was down 15 bps at 3.84%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was down 15 bps at 3.95% in September. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 4.21% and 4.21%. 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 9/30/25 on Wednesday, 10/8.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 41 days (unchanged) and the Crane 100 WAM was down 1 day from the previous month at 41 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)
