The July issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which will be sent to subscribers Wednesday morning, features the articles: "AFP '26 Liquidity Survey Says Deposits, MMFs, T-Bills Rule," which reviews a recent study on corporate cash allocations; "Money Fund Symposium '26 KeyNote: JPMAM's Chris Tufts," which covers highlights from our recent conference in Jersey City; and "ICI: Worldwide MMFs Record $13.5T in Q1'26; China Jumps," which covers global MMF trends and country rankings. We will also send out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Wednesday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 6/30/26 data. Our July Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Friday, July 10, and our July Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Wednesday, July 15. (Note: Please join us for our upcoming European Money Fund Symposium, which will take place Sept. 24-25 in Paris, France!)
MFI's "AFP Liquidity Survey" story says, "The recently released '2026 AFP Liquidity Survey' tells us, 'Most organizations continue to allocate a large share of their short-term investment balances -- an average of 83% -- in safe and liquid investment vehicles: bank deposits, money market funds (MMFs) and Treasury securities. This result is three percentage points higher than the 80% reported in 2025. The typical organization currently maintains 42% of its short-term investments in bank deposits. This allocation is four percentage points lower than last year (2025) but is 13 percent lower than the 55% reported in 2022.... The figure has not reached a level as low as 42% since 2011.' (See our June 22 News, 'AFP 2026 Liquidity Survey: Increase in Corporate Cash; Stablecoins Tiny.')"
It continues, "AFP writes, 'Current allocations in Government/Treasury money funds are 19.5%, a decrease of 0.9 percentage points from the figure reported in 2025.... Allocation to Treasury securities (including bills and notes) is 12.1%, higher than the 8.7% reported in 2024 but very similar to 12.4% reported in 2024.'"
We write in our "MFS KeyNote" article, "Crane Data hosted its big Money Fund Symposium conference in Jersey City last week, where over 740 money market professionals discussed rates, tokenization, record asset levels and a number of other hot topics in cash. The opening session, 'Keynote: Money Funds Stay Hot (& Cool) in '26,' featured J.P. Morgan Asset Management's Global Head of Portfolio Management Chris Tufts. Responding to the record numbers in Jersey City, Tufts says, 'I think it's a reflection of the run our industry has had over the past five or six years in particular.... I think it speaks to the asset gathering, the relevance of our product, and the fact that money funds have become the default liquidity tool for a wider array of investors over the past several years.' (Note: Materials are available in our 'Money Fund Symposium 2026 Download Center.')"
The story continues, "He explains, 'I think I'd also add that what's new, and pretty exciting for me and probably for most of the people in the room, is that we're not just talking about a safe corner of the market, cash management. We're really as an industry increasingly at the forefront of innovation and how cash and liquidity plug into all things digital. So really this is an innovation conversation this year. That's exciting, and I'm happy to be part of that.'"
Our "Worldwide" article says, "The Investment Company Institute published, 'Worldwide Regulated Open-Fund Assets and Flows, First Quarter 2026,' which shows that money fund assets globally rose by $190.7 billion, or 1.4%, in Q1'26 to a record $13.470 trillion. (The totals would have been $13.742 trillion if Australia and New Zealand had been included.) Increases were led by a sharp jump in money funds in China and Ireland, while the U.S. and the Republic of Korea also showed gains. Meanwhile, money funds in India and Japan were lower. MMF assets worldwide increased by $1.626 trillion, or 13.7%, in the 12 months through 3/31/26, and money funds in the U.S. now represent 57.7% of worldwide assets."
It continues, "ICI's release says, 'Worldwide regulated open-end fund assets, excluding funds of funds, decreased 0.8% to $87.23 trillion at the end of the first quarter of 2026. Worldwide net cash inflow to all funds was $931 billion in the first quarter, compared with $1.4 trillion of net inflows in the fourth 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 first quarter of 2026 contains statistics from 44 jurisdictions.'"
MFI also includes the News brief, "MMFs Break Record $8.4 Trillion." It says, "Our MFI Daily shows MMF assets jumping $89.6 billion Monday (7/6) to a record $8.404 trillion. The monthly MFI XLS shows assets rising $49.4 billion in June to a record $8.351 trillion. ICI's latest weekly 'Money Market Fund Assets' shows money fund assets jumping $47.7 billion to a record $7.948 trillion."
Another News brief, "Barron's Writes 'Money-Market Funds Are as Appealing as Ever. Just Don't Back Up the Truck.' The article states, 'Money-market funds have a lot going for them right now. Not only do they offer safety from turbulent markets, but investors can also earn an attractive 3.45% yield, according to Crane's index of the 100 largest money-market funds. That's down from 3.58% at the start of the year, but stable for the past few months and quite a bit higher than most investors expected for midyear.'"
A third News brief, "Portfolio Holdings: Assets Jump; Treasuries Surge, Repo Up," says, "Our June Money Fund Portfolio Holdings, with data as of May 31, 2026, show that holdings of Treasuries jumped sharply last month. Money market securities held by Taxable U.S. money funds (tracked by Crane Data) increased by $255.9 billion to $8.225 trillion in May. Treasuries jumped by $218.9 billion (6.9%) to $3.373 trillion, or 41.0% of holdings. Repo rose by $17.9 billion (0.6%) to $2.992 trillion in May, or 36.4% of holdings. Agencies were the third largest segment, and CP remained fourth, ahead of CDs, Other/Time Deposits and VRDNs."
A sidebar, "Fed Z.1: Household Assets Up," says, "The Federal Reserve's latest quarterly 'Z.1 Financial Accounts of the United States' shows that Total MMF Assets increased by $99 billion to $8.290 trillion in Q1'26. The Household Sector, by far the largest investor segment with $5.419 trillion, saw the biggest asset increase in Q1, followed by Other Financial Business (formerly Funding Corps) and Nonfinancial Corporate Business. The Fed's Z.1 numbers also showed noticeable increases for the Exchange-traded Funds and Rest of the World categories in Q1 2026."
Our July MFI XLS, with June 30 data, shows total assets jumping $49.5 billion to $8.351 trillion, after increasing $193.2 billion in May, decreasing $102.1 billion in April, $56.6 billion in March, increasing $94.0 billion in February, $38.5 billion in January, $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, and $69.0 billion last July.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was up 2 bps at 3.36%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was up 2 bps at 3.47% in June. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 3.72% and 3.73%. Charged Expenses averaged 0.36% 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 6/30/26 on Thursday, 7/9.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 39 days (down 3 bps) and the Crane 100 WAM was down 3 bps from the previous month at 41 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)
