The October issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Wednesday morning, features the articles: "AI Impact on Brokerage Sweep and Deposits Returns to Fore," which discusses AI's potential impact on low-yielding brokerage sweep and bank deposit options; "European MFS Paris Focuses on Tokenization, Growth," which reviews highlights from Crane Data's latest conference; and "ICI Worldwide: MMFs Rise in Q2'26 to Record $13.7 Trillion," which recaps the latest global money fund statistics. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Wednesday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 9/30/26 data. Our October Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Friday, Oct. 9, and our October Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out Thursday, Oct. 15. (Note: Thanks to those of you who supported our European Money Fund Symposium in Paris! Mark your calendars for next year's show in London, Sept. 23-24, 2027!)
MFI's "AI Impact on Brokerage Sweep" story says, "In April, we first heard and wrote about AI's potential impact on low-yielding brokerage sweep and bank deposit options, and it was a big topic during Q1 earnings calls. Then things were quiet during the second and third quarters of this year. But suddenly the issue resurfaced late last month when The Wall Street Journal featured a piece in its 'Heard on the Street' column titled, 'In the Age of AI, Cash Is Still King.'"
It continues, "Author Telis Demos writes, 'When it comes to financial stocks these days, investors seem most concerned about their ability to attract, and hang on to, customers' cash. For many years, cash was trash, as the saying goes. Savings accounts, short-term Treasury bills and money-market funds paid little yield when interest rates were near zero.... Fast forward to today. The Federal Reserve's rate hikes starting in 2022 reset the bar for what cash could pay out to investors.'"
We write in our "European MFS" article, "Crane Data hosted its latest European Money Fund Symposium conference in Paris late last month, where a record 250 money market professionals discussed rates, tokenization, record asset levels and a number of other hot topics in '`offshore' cash. The opening session of day 2, 'Tokenized Money Funds, Stablecoins & More,' featured Brenden Carroll of Dechert LLP, Andrew Paranthoiene of S&P Global Ratings and Rachel Thornton of Northern Trust. Paranthoiene says about tokenization, 'This is sort of the question of the day. The balloon of ESG is sort of fading away, but one of the things that we are thinking about ... from a wider market perspective is the evolution, or the revolution, in regards to tokenized money market funds.'"
The story continues, "He explains, 'For decades, Ireland and Luxembourg have been known as the traditional hubs of liquidity [with] infrastructure and support [for] bank deposits, money funds, CP, custodians, and payment rails built over many years. Today, however, we're witnessing the emergence of something different as these two centers position themselves as not merely hubs for traditional liquidity, but also for digital liquidity.'"
Our "ICI Worldwide" article says, "ICI's latest 'Worldwide Regulated Open-End Fund Assets and Flows, Second Quarter 2026,' shows that money fund assets globally rose by $250.0 billion, or 1.9%, in Q2'26 to a record $13.720 trillion. Increases were led by a sharp jump in money funds in the U.S. and China, while Ireland and Brazil also showed gains. Meanwhile, money funds in France and the Republic of Korea were lower. MMF assets worldwide increased by $1.406 trillion, or 11.4%, in the 12 months through 6/30/26, and money funds in the U.S. now represent 57.6% of worldwide assets. Asian money fund totals remained above European money fund totals."
It continues, "ICI's release says, 'Worldwide regulated open-end fund assets, excluding funds of funds, increased 9.0% to $95.20 trillion at the end of the second quarter of 2026. Worldwide net cash inflow to all funds was $1.0 trillion in the second quarter, compared with $934 billion of net inflows in the first quarter of 2026. 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 second quarter of 2026 contains statistics from 44 jurisdictions.'"
MFI also includes the News brief, "ICI: MF Assets Plunge on Month-End." It says, "The Investment Company Institute's latest weekly 'Money Market Fund Assets' report shows assets plummeting $45.4 billion to $7.891 trillion. Assets saw a record high of $7.979 trillion four weeks ago. MMF assets are up by $526 billion, or 7.1%, over the past 52 weeks (through 9/30/26). Crane Data's MFI XLS shows money fund assets down $50.8 billion to $8.298 trillion in September. ICI's monthly 'Trends' also showed shareholder accounts in MMFs hitting a record 90.7 million in August."
Another News brief, "State Street Published 'Building trust in digital market infrastructure: The role of tokenized MMFs,' which explains, ‘Although still small relative to traditional markets, tokenized money market funds (MMFs) have expanded rapidly in recent years. This growth is driven by increasing institutional use of these products as an efficient form of collateral and as a vehicle to actively generate yield.' (See also the release, 'State Street Galaxy Onchain Liquidity Sweep Fund Goes Live on Stellar.')"
A third News brief, "Northern Trust Asset Management Launches Stablecoin Cash Reserves Portfolio," says, "A press release tells us, 'Northern Trust Asset Management ... announced the launch of the Northern Institutional Funds Stablecoin Cash Reserves Portfolio (NSCXX). The Stablecoin Cash Reserves Portfolio is a U.S. government money market fund designed to support stablecoin issuers' cash reserve needs.... This Stablecoin Cash Reserves Portfolio launch follows Northern Trust Asset Management's entry into the digital assets market earlier this year, after the launch of a tokenized share class of the NIF Treasury Instruments Portfolio.'"
A sidebar, "Crane 100 Index Gets Notice," says, "Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index is getting some notice as it climbs in reaction to the Fed's recent interest rate hike. The Wall Street Journal writes in 'A Simple Way to Take Advantage of Higher Yields,' 'Nobody likes to catch falling knives, as the old Wall Street saying goes. Except that with shorter-term bonds, at least you're wearing some protective gear. Currently, 2-year Treasurys are yielding over 4.9%. That isn't much less than what the 10-year Treasury is paying at over 5.2%.'"
Our October MFI XLS, with September 30 data, shows total assets falling $50.8 billion to $8.298 trillion, after jumping $78.5 billion in August, falling $65.6 billion in July and increasing $49.5 billion in June. They increased $193.2 billion in May, decreased $102.1 billion in April and $56.6 billion in March, but increased $94.0 billion in February. Assets rose $38.5 billion in January, $123.5 billion in December, $129.3 billion in November, and $141.5 billion last October.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was up 17 bps at 3.57%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was up 17 bps at 3.68% in September. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 3.93% and 3.94%. 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 9/30/26 on Thursday, 10/8.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 36 days (down 2 days) and the Crane 100 WAM was down 3 days from the previous month at 36 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)
