The July issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Thursday morning, features the articles: "FSOC, FSB ESMA Comments Set Stage for SEC Reforms '21," which discusses pending money fund regulations; "Asian MF Symposium Recap; JPMAM's Shevlin on China," which reviews our recent Chinese MMF webinar; and, "Worldwide MF Assets Jump in Q1'21 Led by US, China," which highlights `ICI's latest global asset collection. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Thursday a.m., and have updated our Money Fund Wisdom database query system with 6/30/21 data. (MFI, MFI XLS and our Crane Index products are all available to subscribers via our Content center.) Our July Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Monday, July 12, and our July Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out Thursday, July 15.

MFI's lead article says, "Discussions are heating up over another round of money fund regulations, with an SEC reform proposal perhaps coming as soon as next month (or as late as early next year). Over the past month, the Treasury's Financial Stability Oversight Council met, the Financial Stability Board published a study on MMF reform options, and Europe's ESMA posted a slew of comment letters. (Watch for more coverage on the latter in coming days on www.cranedata.com.)"

It continues, "The FSOC addressed MMF reforms during its June meeting. Their statement explains, 'During the executive session, the Council heard an update from Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staff on money market fund reform, including a discussion of public comments received in response to reform options proposed by the President's Working Group on Financial Markets.... [T]he Council voted to approve a statement highlighting the importance of money market fund reform and supporting the SEC's engagement on this important issue.'"

Our latest profile reads, "Last month, we hosted our latest webinar, 'Asian Money Fund Symposium,' a 2-hour, 3-session event which featured J.P. Morgan Asset Management's Aidan Shevlin, Goldman Sachs A.M.'s Pat O'Callaghan, Fitch Ratings' Alastair Sewell, S&P Global's Andrew Paranthoiene and Crane Data's Peter Crane. The segments discussed money funds, money markets and investors in China, Japan and several other Eastern markets. We excerpt some of the highlights below. (See the recording here and the handouts here.)"

Shevlin tells us, "I work for J.P. Morgan Asset Management and am the Head of the International Liquidity Fund Management team.... I moved to Hong Kong to help set up our Global Liquidity business here [and] launch our funds in China. We also have money market funds in Taiwan, in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and other types of funds.... So, we've built quite a familiarity and expertise with money markets across the region."

He adds, "Asia is now becoming effectively too big for the world and for Western markets to ignore in terms of its share of global growth, its share of global trade, the amount of bonds outstanding.... It's just a massive economy now.... China is the second biggest bond market in the world.... They're increasingly being opened to Western investors ... giving investors a huge increase in the range of ... issuers they can buy. It gives them great diversification. Asian issuers typically offer at higher yields than their Western peers, while having a higher credit quality and an equivalent or lower duration.... It's a market which everyone is now looking at. Everyone wants to get involved in and be active there."

The "Worldwide" article tells readers, "ICI's 'Worldwide Regulated Open-Fund Assets and Flows, First Quarter 2021' release shows that money fund assets globally rose by $164.6 billion, or 2.0%, in Q1'21 to $8.479 trillion. The increase was driven by big jumps in U.S. and Chinese money market fund assets. But European assets plunged. MMF assets worldwide increased by $791.4 billion, or 10.3%, in the 12 months through 3/31/21, and MMFs in the U.S. now represent 53.0% of worldwide assets.'"

The piece continues, "According to Crane Data's analysis of ICI's 'Worldwide' fund data, the U.S. sustained its position as the largest money fund market in Q1'21 with $4.497 trillion, or 53.0% of all global MMF assets. U.S. MMF assets increased by $163.6 billion (3.8%) in Q1'21 and increased by $159.5 billion (3.7%) in the 12 months through March 31, 2021. China remained in second place among countries overall. China saw assets increase $156.4 billion (12.7%) in Q1, to $1.390 trillion (16.4% of worldwide assets). Over the 12 months through March 31, 2021, Chinese assets have risen by $230.5 billion, or 19.9%."

MFI also includes the News brief, "MMF Assets Drop Below $5.0 Trillion in June." It says, "Crane Data shows money funds falling by $73.0 billion in June to $4.991 trillion. YTD, assets are up $271.3 billion, or 5.7%. ICI's 'Money Market Fund Assets' shows MMFs down 4 weeks in a row to $4.53 trillion."

Another News brief, "MMF Expenses Hit Record Lows," tells readers, "Charged expense ratios fell to a new low of 0.​06% in May. (Our June 30 numbers will be posted tomorrow in the revised MFI XLS.) We estimate that annualized revenue for money funds has declined from $9.324 trillion on 5/31/20 to $2.125 trillion on 5/31/21."

Our July MFI XLS, with June 30 data, shows total assets decreased $73.0 billion to $4.991 trillion, after increasing $74.0 billion in May and $62.2 billion in April, and jumping $151.0 billion in March. Assets rose $30.8 billion in February and $5.6 billion in January. Assets decreased $6.7 billion in December, $11.7 billion in November, $46.8 billion in October, $121.2 billion in September, $42.3 billion in August and $44.2 billion in July. Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield remained at record low 0.01%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) remained flat at 0.02%.

On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 both remained at 0.07%. Charged Expenses averaged 0.06% for the Crane MFA and 0.06% for the Crane 100. (We'll revise expenses tomorrow once we upload the SEC's Form N-MFP data for 6/30.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA and Crane 100 was 38 (down one day from the previous month) and 38 days (same as last month), respectively. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)

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