News Archives: February, 2026
A press release titled, "ProShares Launches IQMM, the First Money Market ETF for the GENIUS Act," tell us, "ProShares, a premier provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), ... announced the launch of the ProShares GENIUS Money Market ETF (IQMM), the first money market ETF to meet the stringent requirements of the GENIUS Act, making it eligible for investment for stablecoin reserves. IQMM provides a flexible, transparent option for investors seeking a high-quality cash management solution. The fund invests exclusively in short-term U.S. Treasuries with a focus on principal preservation and stability." (Note: Register soon and make your hotel reservations ASAP <i:https://www.cranesbfsymposium.com/hotel-and-travel>`_ for our upcoming Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 19-20 in Boston. Our discounted hotel rate expires on Tuesday, Feb. 24. See you next month!)
ProShares CEO Michael Sapir comments, "IQMM reflects ProShares' continued commitment to building innovative products for evolving markets. The fund offers a more conservative approach to cash management than is required by standard money market rules, with all the known benefits and convenience of an ETF. We believe that IQMM will be an attractive cash management alternative for institutional investors, including stablecoin treasuries, as well as financial professionals and individual investors."
The release adds, "IQMM combines intra-day trading and weekly distributions in a low-cost ETF structure. For individual investors, IQMM may offer higher income potential than bank deposits or holding cash. For institutions and stablecoin providers, the Fund's dual Net Asset Value (NAV) and same-day settlement features may offer increased flexibility in managing reserve or treasury assets."
For more on Money Market ETFs, see these Crane Data News stories: "State Street Prime MM ETF Goes Live <i:https://cranedata.com/archives/all-articles/11215/>`_" (2/17/26), "ProShares Genius Money Market ETF"(1/8/26), "Boston Fed Paper Examines Vulnerabilities of MM ETFs, Tokenized MMFs" (1/7/26), "Top 10 Stories of 2025: Assets Break $8.0 Tril., Tokenized MMFs & ETFs" (12/18/25), "JPMorgan Treasury MM ETF Goes Live" (12/15/25), "HSBC Launches European Sterling, Euro Liquidity ETFs; First LVNAV ETFs" (12/4/25), "State Street Files for Prime Money Market ETF; 7th MM ETF, 2nd Prime" (11/4/25), "Barron's on Money-Market ETFs; JPMorgan Says MF Assets Headed Higher" (10/20/25), "JPMorgan Files for Money Market ETF" (7/10/25), "BlackRock Money Market ETFs Go Live; Ondo Finance on Tokenized MMFs" (2/6/25), "VettaFi Discusses Money Market ETFs" (12/11/24), "Dec. MFI: Assets Break $7.0 Tril; Top 10 of 2024; BlackRock MM ETFs" (12/6/24), "BlackRock Debuts First Euro MM ETF" (12/5/24), "FT on BlackRock Money Market ETFs" (11/18/24), "November BFI: Bond Funds Hit by Election; ETF Trends MM Substitutes" (11/15/24), "BlackRock Files for Money Market ETFs" (11/12/24) and "Texas Capital Launches Govt MM ETF" (9/26/24).
In other news, The Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently published a staff report titled, "Stablecoins vs. Tokenized Deposits: The Narrow Banking Debate Revisited." They write, "We study how the type of money used in blockchain-based trade affects interest rates, investment, and welfare. Stablecoins in our model are backed by safe assets, while banks issue deposits (both traditional and tokenized) to fund a portfolio of safe and risky assets. Deposit insurance creates a risk-shifting incentive for banks, and regulation increases banks' costs."
The piece explains, "If regulatory costs are large and risk-shifting is limited, we show that allowing only tokenized deposits to be used in crypto trade raises welfare by expanding bank credit. If regulation is lighter and the risk-shifting incentive is strong, in contrast, allowing only stablecoins is desirable despite crowding out credit. In between these cases, allowing stablecoins and tokenized deposits to compete is optimal. The tradeoffs between these policies are reminiscent of both historical and recent debates over the desirability of narrow banking."
The Introduction says, "As blockchain-based economic activity has developed in recent years, demand has grown for a blockchain-native or 'tokenized' form of money denominated in a traditional unit of account, especially the U.S. dollar. A number of so-called stablecoins have emerged to play this role, and the market capitalization of these stablecoins exceeded $300 billion in November 2025. The rise of this new form of money has sparked a debate about how it should be created. What type of entities should issue tokenized money, and what assets should back their liabilities? We examine these questions using a dynamic general equilibrium model of money and exchange that highlights similarities between this current policy issue and historical debates in money and banking."
They state, "Others argue that the demand for tokenized money should instead be met by commercial banks. Banks could issue a tokenized form of deposits to fund a portfolio of loans and securities in much the same way as they do with traditional bank deposits. Proponents of this view emphasize that banks promote the flow of credit in a way that stablecoins do not. Garratt et al. (2022), for example, argue that tokenized deposits are a better solution because they 'support bank lending to the real economy and the transmission of monetary policy.'"
The paper tells us, "While the demand for blockchain-native money is new, the debate about how money should be created and what assets should back the supply of money has a long history. The comparison between stablecoins and tokenized bank deposits is, in many ways, a modern version of the narrow-banking debate. The argument that tokenized money should be required to take the form of stablecoins that are backed 100% by cash-like reserves resembles the Chicago Plan for banking reform of the 1930s, which advocated separating money from the process of credit creation.... Current arguments in favor of allowing banks to issue tokenized deposits echo this view."
It adds, "In the U.S., a state-chartered bank called TNB ('The Narrow Bank') aimed to use a similar business model, but its request for a master account at the Federal Reserve was denied. Among the concerns expressed by policymakers was the possibility that competition from narrow banks would undermine traditional banks' ability to provide credit to the real economy. These episodes demonstrate that the effect of 'narrow' types of money on credit provision is an important policy concern."
Finally, they summarize, "In this paper, we study how the type of money used in blockchain-based transactions -- stablecoins vs. tokenized deposits -- affects trade, investment, and welfare using a New Monetarist model in the tradition of Lagos and Wright (2005). Our model builds most directly on the setup in Keister and Sanches (2023), where bank deposits backed by private investment serve as a medium of exchange. We modify the environment by making this investment risky and allowing banks to also hold risk-free storage. We also introduce stablecoin issuers who can create a competing medium of exchange backed fully by goods in storage. Households engage in two types of decentralized trade: traditional and blockchain-based (or crypto). In traditional trade, a buyer must pay using a deposit issued by a bank. Our focus is on what type of money is used in crypto trade."
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission published its latest monthly "Money Market Fund Statistics" summary Thursday. The report shows that total money fund assets rose by $36.6 billion in January 2026 to a record high $8.217 trillion, after hitting $8.180 trillion the month prior. The SEC shows Prime MMFs increased $22.3 billion in January to $1.365 trillion, Govt & Treasury funds increased $23.1 billion to $6.703 trillion and Tax Exempt funds decreased $8.8 billion to $149.1 billion. Taxable yields were lower again in January following declines in December. The SEC's Division of Investment Management summarizes monthly Form N-MFP data and includes asset totals and averages for yields, liquidity levels, WAMs, WALs, holdings, and other money market fund trends. We review their latest numbers below. (Our MFI XLS monthly shows money fund assets increasing $33.9 billion in January 2026 to a record of $8.155 trillion. In February month-to-date through 2/18, total money fund assets have increased by $66.2 billion to $8.208 trillion, according to Crane Data's separate, and slightly smaller, MFI Daily series.)
January's asset increase follows an increase of $125.0 billion in December, $125.1 billion in November, $153.2 billion in October, $106.0 billion in September, $138.0 billion in August, $60.2 billion in July, $4.3 billion in June, $94.9 billion in May, a decrease of $17.5 billion in April, a rise of $2.8 billion in March, $101.8 billion in February and $47.9 billion last January. Over the 12 months through 1/31/26, total MMF assets have increased by $930.5 billion, or 12.8%, according to the SEC's series.
The SEC's stats show that of the $8.217 trillion in assets, $1.365 trillion was in Prime funds, up $22.4 billion in January. Prime assets were up $1.2 billion in December, $3.1 billion in November, $9.1 billion in October, $6.2 billion in September, $20.2 billion in August, $22.7 billion in July, $9.8 billion in June, $11.8 billion in May, $2.3 billion in April, $22.1 billion in March, $15.5 billion in February and $27.3 billion last January. Prime funds represented 16.6% of total assets at the end of January. They've increased by $146.3 billion, or 12.0%, over the past 12 months. (Note that the SEC's series includes a number of internal money funds not tracked by ICI, though Crane Data includes most of these assets in its collections.)
Government & Treasury funds totaled $6.703 trillion, or 81.6% of assets. They increased $23.1 billion in January, increased $117.3 billion in December, $115.4 billion in November, increased $142.1 billion in October, increased $97.8 billion in September, increased $118.1 billion in August, increased $39.0 billion in July, decreased $0.7 billion in June, increased $82.7 billion in May, decreased $25.1 billion in April, $21.8 billion in March, increased $85.5 billion in February and $23.2 billion last January. Govt & Treasury MMFs are up $773.5 billion over 12 months, or 13.0%. Tax Exempt Funds decreased $8.8 billion to $149.1 billion, or 1.8% of all assets. The number of money funds was 284 in January, unchanged from the previous month and up 9 funds from a year earlier.
Yields for Taxable and Tax Exempt MMFs were both lower in January. The Weighted Average Gross 7-Day Yield for Prime Institutional Funds on January 31 was 3.84%, down 7 bps from the prior month. The Weighted Average Gross 7-Day Yield for Prime Retail MMFs was 3.86%, down 7 bps from the previous month. Gross yields were 3.75% for Government Funds, down 8 bps from last month. Gross yields for Treasury Funds were down 9 bps at 3.73%. Gross Yields for Tax Exempt Institutional MMFs were down 110 basis points to 1.99% in January. Gross Yields for Tax Exempt Retail funds were down 94 bps to 2.12%.
The Weighted Average 7-Day Net Yield for Prime Institutional MMFs was 3.74%, down 6 bps from the previous month and down 69 bps from 1/31/25. The Average Net Yield for Prime Retail Funds was 3.59%, down 8 bps from the previous month and down 69 bps since 1/31/25. Net yields were 3.53% for Government Funds, down 8 bps from last month. Net yields for Treasury Funds were down 8 bps from the previous month at 3.53%. Net Yields for Tax Exempt Institutional MMFs were down 111 bps from December to 1.88%. Net Yields for Tax Exempt Retail funds were down 94 bps at 1.89% in January. (Note: These averages are asset-weighted.)
WALs and WAMs were mixed in January. The average Weighted Average Life, or WAL, was 58.8 days (up 6.3 days) for Prime Institutional funds, and 49.7 days for Prime Retail funds (up 1.4 days). Government fund WALs averaged 92.6 days (up 4.0 days) while Treasury fund WALs averaged 97.4 days (up 2.3 days). Tax Exempt Institutional fund WALs were 5.0 days (unchanged), and Tax Exempt Retail MMF WALs averaged 30.5 days (down 0.1 days).
The Weighted Average Maturity, or WAM, was 33.0 days (up 4.9 days from the previous month) for Prime Institutional funds, 32.5 days (up 1.8 days from the previous month) for Prime Retail funds, 41.3 days (up 2.2 days from previous month) for Government funds, and 47.2 days (up 1.0 days from previous month) for Treasury funds. Tax Exempt Inst WAMs were down 0.2 days at 5.0 days, while Tax Exempt Retail WAMs were unchanged from previous month at 29.7 days.
Total Daily Liquid Assets for Prime Institutional funds were 51.8% in January (down 1.3% from the previous month), and DLA for Prime Retail funds was 48.0% (up 0.8% from previous month) as a percent of total assets. The average DLA was 63.7% for Govt MMFs and 94.6% for Treasury MMFs. Total Weekly Liquid Assets was 65.2% (up 0.2% from the previous month) for Prime Institutional MMFs, and 61.1% (up 0.7% from the previous month) for Prime Retail funds. Average WLA was 82.6% for Govt MMFs and 99.0% for Treasury MMFs.
Note that the SEC made a number of changes to their monthly release in April 2025, so we're no longer publishing a number of tables. A press release titled, "SEC Publishes New Data and Analysis About Registered Investment Companies and Money Market Funds," states, "The Securities and Exchange Commission ... published new data and analysis in a pair of reports that provide the investing public with updated key information about registered investment companies and money market funds. 'It is important that the Commission publicly shares the information it collects in a clear and transparent way,' says Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda. 'These two reports will provide the public with key information about the approximately $41.5 trillion investors trust to funds and the approximately $7.39 trillion invested in money market funds.'"
The SEC says, "Money Market Fund Statistics is an enhanced version of the money market funds report generated by the Division of Investment Management. This report contains additional statistical analysis and enhancements, as well as certain metrics based on Form N-MFP data. The modifications to the report are designed to further facilitate the public's ability to efficiently review, digest, and use aggregate information about the money market fund industry by including summaries of more money market fund data, including information about internal affiliated funds, portfolio investments, flows, and industry concentration. The report extends the downloadable historical statistical series of data back to 2010."
Tim Husson, who leads the SEC's Division of Investment Management's Analytics Office, adds, "Forms N-MFP and N-CEN provide insights into key areas of the investment company industry. The reports reflect our continued dedication to enhance the public's use of important information about the industry."
Crane Data published its latest Weekly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics Wednesday, which track a shifting subset of our monthly Portfolio Holdings collection. The most recent cut (with data as of February 13) includes Holdings information from 62 money funds (up 30 from two weeks ago), or $4.220 trillion (up from $2.007 trillion) of the $8.165 trillion in total money fund assets (or 51.7%) 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 February 11 News, "Feb. Portfolio Holdings: Assets Dip; Agencies Jump, Treasuries Plummet.")
Our latest Weekly MFPH Composition summary shows Government assets dominating the holdings list with Treasuries totaling $1.987 trillion (up from $908.8 billion two weeks ago), or 47.1%; Repurchase Agreements (Repo) totaling $1.515 trillion (up from $779.8 billion two weeks ago), or 35.9%, and Government Agency securities totaling $383.6 billion (up from $222.5 billion two weeks ago), or 9.1%. Commercial Paper (CP) totaled $158.9 billion (up from $44.8 billion two weeks ago), or 3.8%. Certificates of Deposit (CDs) totaled $76.8 billion (up from $21.8 billion two weeks ago), or 1.8%. The Other category accounted for $60.8 billion or 1.4%, while VRDNs accounted for $38.4 billion or 0.9%.
The Ten Largest Issuers in our Weekly Holdings product include: the US Treasury with $1.987 trillion, Fixed Income Clearing Corp with $509.7B, the Federal Home Loan Bank with $223.4B, JP Morgan with $144.3B, RBC with $107.2B, Citi with $100.1B, BNP Paribas with $96.7B, Federal Farm Credit Bank with $95.3B, Wells Fargo with $81.5B and Bank of America with $55.9B.
The Ten Largest Funds tracked in our latest Weekly include: JPMorgan US Govt MM ($331.0B), JPMorgan 100% US Trs MM ($311.9B), Goldman Sachs FS Govt ($295.1B), Fidelity Inv MM: Govt Port ($272.7B), State Street Inst US Govt ($224.3B), Morgan Stanley Inst Liq Govt ($223.6B), BlackRock Lq FedFund ($195.2B), BlackRock Lq Treas Tr ($177.6B), Fidelity Inv MM: MM Port ($168.3B) and Dreyfus Govt Cash Mgmt ($165.3B). (Let us know if you'd like to see our latest domestic U.S. and/or "offshore" Weekly Portfolio Holdings collection and summary.
In related news, ICI recently released its latest monthly "Money Market Fund Holdings" summary, which reviews the aggregate daily and weekly liquid assets, regional exposure, and maturities (WAM and WAL) for Prime and Government money market funds. It tells us, "The Investment Company Institute (ICI) reports that, as of the final Friday in January, prime money market funds held 46.4 percent of their portfolios in daily liquid assets and 60.8 percent in weekly liquid assets, while government money market funds held 76.4 percent of their portfolios in daily liquid assets and 87.9 percent in weekly liquid assets." Prime DLA was up from 46.2% in December, and Prime WLA was up from 59.9%. Govt MMFs' DLA fell from 77.4% and Govt WLA was down from 88.5% for the previous month.
ICI explains, "At the end of January, prime funds had a weighted average maturity (WAM) of 34 days and a weighted average life (WAL) of 54 days. Average WAMs and WALs are asset-weighted. Government money market funds had a WAM of 44 days and a WAL of 96 days." Prime WAMs were up 3 days while WALs were also up 3 days from the previous month. Govt WAMs and WALs were both up from the previous month, WAMs were 2 days longer and WALs were 4 days longer.
Regarding Holdings by Region of Issuer, the release tells us, "Prime money market funds’ holdings attributable to the Americas declined from $785.86 billion in December to $755.74 billion in January. Government money market funds’ holdings attributable to the Americas declined from $6,085.24 billion in December to $5,868.84 billion in January."
The Prime Money Market Funds by Region of Issuer table shows Americas-related holdings at $755.7 billion, or 61.1%; Asia and Pacific at $179.8 billion, or 14.5%; Europe at $271.9 billion, or 22.0%; and, Other (including Supranational) at $29.2 billion, or 2.4%. The Government Money Market Funds by Region of Issuer table shows Americas at $5.869 trillion, or 92.1%; Asia and Pacific at $109.5 or 1.7%; Europe at $353.6 billion, 5.5%, and Other (Including Supranational) at $43.0 billion, or 0.7%.
Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal wrote, "A Winter for Stablecoins Would Signal Crypto Deep Freeze." The article tells us, "Bitcoin's price drop has certainly put a chill on the market for crypto companies. But as the digital-asset realm evolves, the real deep freeze would be if there were an extended drop in the value of stablecoins in circulation. Stablecoins aren't designed for speculation. Their price is meant to be fixed to a fiat currency, typically the U.S. dollar. That shouldn't rise or fall with demand or sentiment." (Note: Please join us for our upcoming Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 19-20 in Boston. We hope to see you next month!)
The piece explains, "But stablecoins can be created or redeemed, depending on how much demand there is to hold them. If they are overall shrinking, that could be a sign investors are souring on not only bitcoin but perhaps also the broader digital-asset ecosystem. The total market value of the seven largest U.S. dollar stablecoins currently tracked by CoinGecko has declined almost 2% from its peak in December. That isn't a huge drop. But it follows a steady surge in stablecoin value over the past year, helped by passage of the Genius Act, which is aimed at regulating these coins in the U.S."
They write, "And it is just one more reason why market pressure is building across digital-asset companies.... At Coinbase Global bitcoin is responsible for the largest share of transaction revenue of any particular token or coin. Coinbase also holds bitcoin in its own investment portfolio. The price of bitcoin is down about 25% this year. Yet Coinbase shares are down almost 40% so far in 2026."
The Journal says, "Coinbase has made stablecoins a key cog in its business, in part to help make its revenue less correlated to crypto-price volatility. Through an arrangement with Circle Internet Group, issuer of the stablecoin known as USDC, Coinbase gets revenue from USDC held on its own platform, as well as from off-platform USDC. That revenue hit an all-time high in 2025, which Coinbase reported Thursday."
They add, "Beyond coins and tokens, players are increasingly introducing lots of other tokenized assets to buy with this digital money. That includes versions of staid money-market funds managed by the likes of BlackRock or Franklin Templeton. Coinbase is aiming to add more asset classes, like stocks and prediction contracts, as well as tools to tokenize assets, as part of its 'Everything Exchange' strategy."
Finally, the WSJ states, "On some platforms, including Coinbase, customers holding USDC can earn rewards in the form of an annual percentage of more coins. These rewards are a big enough potential draw for stablecoins that the move of banks to lobby against them -- arguing they are a threat to deposits -- has helped delay legislation regarding crypto-market structure. But when people are selling cryptocurrency or other digital assets, and then taking their money out of the digital-money ecosystem entirely, they can redeem their stablecoins for regular old bank-account money."
In other news, a press release titled, "Aviva Investors seeks to tokenise products on the XRP Ledger in collaboration with Ripple," states, "Aviva Investors, the global asset management business of Aviva plc, and Ripple, a financial technology company that offers crypto solutions for businesses, have ... announced a partnership with the intention of tokenising traditional fund structures."
It says, "Ripple will support Aviva Investors with the initiative as part of its broader effort to bring traditional financial assets with real utility to the XRP Ledger – a decentralized open-source public blockchain that is designed for fast and efficient global financial transactions. The collaboration is Ripple's first with an investment management business based in Europe, building upon the firm's significant experience working with financial institutions in other regions."
The release tells us, "The initiative is also the first of its kind for Aviva Investors, as they seek to incorporate tokenised solutions into their existing product offering. The collaboration is anchored in a shared long-term vision, with both parties set to work together closely over 2026 and beyond to bring tokenised funds to the XRP Ledger. The XRPL enables Aviva Investors to reliably issue and manage its tokenised funds using fast, secure, low-cost blockchain transactions, with the lack of mining required to settle transactions expected to support energy efficiency. It offers a set of features, including compliance capabilities, designed to support financial institutions operating in regulated markets. Since 2012, the network has processed more than 4 billion transactions, supports over 7 million active wallets, and is maintained by 120 independent validators."
Jill Barber, Chief Distribution Officer at Aviva Investors, comments, "We're really delighted to announce our collaboration with Ripple, and we look forward to working closely with the team to explore tokenising solutions. We believe there are many benefits that tokenisation can bring to investors, including improvements in terms of both time and cost efficiency. As the investment arm of the UK's leading insurer, we have a long track record with regards to innovation. We are committed to adopting technological advancements that we believe can bring about positive change for our business, and we think tokenised funds can be hugely beneficial to our clients."
Ripple's Vice President of Trading and Markets Nigel Khakoo adds, "Tokenization is now moving from experimentation to large-scale production. Institutions like Aviva Investors are now focused on how to deploy regulated financial assets at scale. The development of tokenised fund structures is one that we believe can bring huge technological efficiencies to the investment sector, and we expect this to take full effect over the next decade. With its built-in compliance tools, near-instant settlement, and native liquidity, the XRPL provides the secure and scalable infrastructure required to support the next generation of institutional assets."
Crane Data's latest Money Fund Intelligence International shows that assets in European or "offshore" money market mutual funds increased over the past 30 days to a record $1.662 trillion, rising from $1.634 trillion the month prior. Yields were mostly lower, while assets for USD, EUR and GBP MMFs all rose over the past month. Like U.S. money fund assets, European MMFs have repeatedly hit record highs in 2023, 2024 and 2025 (after a pause in Q2'25). These U.S.-style money funds, domiciled in Ireland or Luxembourg and denominated in US Dollars, Pound Sterling and Euros, increased by $20.1 billion over the 30 days through 2/12. The totals are up $77.9 billion (4.9%) year-to-date for 2026. They were up $151.9 billion (10.6%) for 2025, up $235.3 billion (19.7%) for 2024 and up $166.9 billion (16.2%) for the year 2023. (Note that currency moves in the U.S. Dollar cause Euro and Sterling totals to shift when they're translated back into totals in USD. See our latest MFI International for more on the "offshore" money fund marketplace. These funds are only available to qualified, non-U.S. investors and are almost entirely institutional.)
Offshore US Dollar money funds increased $11.1 billion over the last 30 days and are up $42.5 billion YTD to $878.5 billion; they increased $92.3 billion in 2025. Euro funds increased E7.1 billion over the past month. YTD, they're up E15.7 billion to E346.1 billion, for 2025, they increased by E12.6 billion. GBP money funds increased L587 million over 30 days, and they're up L12.9 billion YTD at L286.0B, for 2025, they rose L10.5 billion. U.S. Dollar (USD) money funds (317) account for over half (52.8%) of the "European" money fund total, while Euro (EUR) money funds (231) make up 24.2% and Pound Sterling (GBP) funds (208) total 23.0%. We summarize our latest "offshore" money fund statistics and our Money Fund Intelligence International Portfolio Holdings (which went out to subscribers Friday), below.
Offshore USD MMFs yield 3.62% (7-Day) on average (as of 2/12/26), down 4 bps from a month earlier. Yields averaged 4.20% on 12/30/22 and 0.03% on 12/31/21. EUR MMFs, which left negative yield territory in the second half of 2022, yield 1.92% on average, up 1 bp from a month ago and up from 1.48% on 12/30/22 and -0.80% on 12/31/21. Meanwhile, GBP MMFs broke above the 5.0% barrier 30 months ago, but they broke back below 5.0% 19 months ago. They now yield 3.75%, down 4 bps from a month ago, but up from 3.17% on 12/30/22. Sterling yields were 0.01% on 12/31/21.
Crane's February MFI International Portfolio Holdings, with data as of 1/31/26, show that European-domiciled US Dollar MMFs, on average, consist of 29% in Commercial Paper (CP), 17% in Certificates of Deposit (CDs), 26% in Repo, 17% in Treasury securities, 9% in Other securities (primarily Time Deposits) and 2% in Government Agency securities. USD funds have on average 47.1% of their portfolios maturing Overnight, 4.7% maturing in 2-7 Days, 8.4% maturing in 8-30 Days, 9.5% maturing in 31-60 Days, 8.5% maturing in 61-90 Days, 13.7% maturing in 91-180 Days and 8.1% maturing beyond 181 Days. USD holdings are affiliated with the following countries: the U.S. (36.7%), France (11.4%), Canada (9.8%), Japan (8.9%), Australia (5.4%), the U.K. (5.0%), the Netherlands (4.8%), Germany (4.0%), Sweden (3.1%) and Finland (2.3%).
The 10 Largest Issuers to "offshore" USD money funds include: the US Treasury with $144.9B (16.9%), Fixed Income Clearing Corp with $49.6B (5.8%), JP Morgan with $35.7B (4.2%), Credit Agricole with $26.4B (3.1%), Toronto-Dominion Bank with $21.4B (2.5%), Barclays PLC with $21.2B (2.5%), Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd with $19.0B (2.2%), Nordea Bank with $18.6B (2.2%), Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc with $18.4B (2.1%) and Wells Fargo with $18.1B (2.1%).
Euro MMFs tracked by Crane Data contain, on average 41% in CP, 22% in CDs, 14% in Other (primarily Time Deposits), 20% in Repo, 3% in Treasuries and 0% in Agency securities. EUR funds have on average 37.3% of their portfolios maturing Overnight, 6.3% maturing in 2-7 Days, 12.6% maturing in 8-30 Days, 9.3% maturing in 31-60 Days, 11.9% maturing in 61-90 Days, 15.5% maturing in 91-180 Days and 7.1% maturing beyond 181 Days. EUR MMF holdings are affiliated with the following countries: France (26.9%), Japan (11.2%), the U.S. (9.7%), Canada (8.5%), the Netherlands (7.2%), Germany (5.8%), the U.K. (5.0%), Australia (4.3%), Finland (4.0%) and Sweden (3.7%).
The 10 Largest Issuers to "offshore" EUR money funds include: BNP Paribas with E15.0B (5.0%), Credit Agricole with E14.4B (4.8%), JP Morgan with E12.0B (4.0%), ING Bank with E10.9B (3.6%), Agence Central de Organismes de Securite Sociale with E10.5B (3.5%), Societe Generale with E9.3B (3.1%), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp with E8.8B (2.9%), Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd with E8.4B (2.8%), Republic of France with E8.1B (2.7%) and Nordea Bank with E7.0B (2.3%).
The GBP funds tracked by MFI International contain, on average (as of 1/31/26): 38% in CDs, 21% in CP, 20% in Other (Time Deposits), 17% in Repo, 3% in Treasury and 1% in Agency. Sterling funds have on average 36.1% of their portfolios maturing Overnight, 8.3% maturing in 2-7 Days, 10.6% maturing in 8-30 Days, 9.3% maturing in 31-60 Days, 10.8% maturing in 61-90 Days, 14.1% maturing in 91-180 Days and 10.7% maturing beyond 181 Days. GBP MMF holdings are affiliated with the following countries: France (16.3%), Canada (14.5%), the U.K. (13.2%), Japan (12.8%), the U.S. (9.4%), Australia (7.7%), the Netherlands (4.3%), Singapore (3.6%), Finland (3.1%) and Germany (2.6%).
The 10 Largest Issuers to "offshore" GBP money funds include: UK Treasury with L19.4B (7.4%), RBC with L12.3B (4.7%), BNP Paribas with L11.3B (4.3%), Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank with L9.7B (3.7%), Agence Central de Organismes de Securite Sociale with L9.1B (3.5%), Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd with L8.2B (3.1%), JP Morgan with L7.6B (2.9%), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp with L7.5B (2.9%), Nordea Bank with L7.4B (2.8%) and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd with L7.0B (2.7%).
The February issue of our Bond Fund Intelligence, which was sent to subscribers Friday a.m., features the articles, "Cerulli on Fixed-Income ETF Product Development, Growth," which excerpts from a paper on bond ETF trends; and "Franklin Templeton's Driscoll on Ultra Short Duration," which covers a recent interview. BFI also recaps the latest Bond Fund News and includes our Crane BFI Indexes, which show that bond fund returns jumped while yields declined in January. We excerpt from the new issue below. (Contact us if you'd like to see our latest Bond Fund Intelligence and BFI XLS spreadsheet, or our Bond Fund Portfolio Holdings data, and join us for our upcoming Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 19-20 in Boston, Mass.)
BFI's lead article states, "Cerulli Associates published a paper titled, 'Fixed-Income ETF Use and Product Development Efforts Accelerate.' They write, 'Fixed-income ETFs have experienced steady growth in recent years, with assets in taxable fixed-income ETFs increasing from $1.2 trillion in 2022 to nearly $2 trillion at the end of 3Q 2025. Tax-free fixed-income ETFs increased from $106 billion to $165 billion at the end of the third quarter. In the last three years, more than 300 new fixed-income ETFs were developed and the expectation that the products will significantly influence future flows is fueling rapid product development in both passive fixed-income ETFs and, even more so, active solutions.'"
It continues, "The overview says, 'The growth in fixed-income ETF use is driven by several factors, including greater advisor familiarity with using ETFs for fixed income, a more favorable interest rate environment, and the development of a more diverse set of fixed-income ETF solutions by issuers.'"
Our "profile" article states, "Franklin Templeton posted an interview with Putnam Ultra Short Duration Income Fund's Head of Short-Term Liquid Markets Joanne Driscoll titled, 'Capital Preservation With Purpose: Inside Our Ultra Short Duration Strategy.' She tells us, 'At Franklin Templeton Fixed Income, we offer a comprehensive set of fixed income solutions backed by a team of specialized investment professionals skilled in navigating diverse market conditions. We are committed to pursuing consistent, predictable fixed income results for our clients by delivering a measured, no surprises approach.'"
It continues, "Driscoll explains, 'As part of my role, I oversee and manage our cash management, money market, and ultra-short businesses, which represent nearly 40 billion in assets under management. I'm here today to share an overview of our ultra-short duration capabilities, which we believe are differentiated in the marketplace. For background, the ultra-short bond category gained traction in the marketplace following the global financial crisis, and particularly after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission passed the first round of money market reform in 2010.'"
Our first News brief, "Returns Jump, Yields Fall in January," states, "Bond fund returns were higher in January and yields were lower. Our BFI Total Index rose 0.45% over 1-month and rose 6.16% over 12 months. (Money funds rose 3.96% over 1-year as measured by our Crane 100 Index.) The BFI 100 increased 0.38% in Jan. and rose 6.77% over 12 mos. Our BFI Conservative Ultra-Short Index was up 0.36% over 1-month and 4.71% for 1-year; Ultra-Shorts rose 0.35% and 4.85%. Short-Term gained 0.35% and 5.80%, and Intm-Term rose 0.38% in Jan. and 7.29% over 12 mos. BFI's Long-Term Index was up 0.25% and up 7.04%. High Yield returned 0.40% in January and 6.73% over 12 months."
A second News brief, "Morningstar on 'How Muni-Bond Funds Navigated a Bumpy Ride in 2025.' They write, 'The municipal-bond market delivered inconsistent returns over 2025, with performance pressured early in the year by uncertainty around federal tax legislation, heavy new-issue supply, volatility around tariffs, and seasonal selling.... Performance improved in August as prices were boosted by interest rate cuts and a moderation in new issues. Solid demand was met by more restrained issuance, turning mutual fund flows positive and bringing spreads tighter, which supported stronger total returns toward the end of the calendar year.'"
Another brief states: "SSIM Writes in Its, 'Q1 Bond Market Outlook for ETF Investors,' 'Th[e] combination of growth potential and heightened sensitivity to downside risks underscores the need for careful positioning as policy and market conditions coalesce. And with tight credit spreads, elevated yields, and policy normalization, fixed income returns are likely to rely more on income and carry than on beta. In this environment, investors should focus on: High-quality exposure in the short-to-intermediate part of the curve to help capture carry and roll-down while managing reinvestment risk and limiting reliance on further spread compression [and] Active, bottom-up strategies to seek opportunities when volatility emerges and issuer outcomes diverge.'"
A BFI sidebar, "Best Bond ETFs to Buy," says, "Kiplinger's writes about 'The Best Bond ETFs to Buy.' They tell us, 'Many investors are still cautious about fixed income after the 2022 bond bear market. That year, aggressive rate hikes from the Federal Reserve caused prices on many bond ETFs to plunge, especially those with longer maturities. The memory of bonds falling alongside stocks left a mark.'"
Finally, another sidebar, "ETF.com: Bond ETFs Stumble," states, "ETF.com says, 'Bond ETFs Stumble as Rate Cut Hopes Fade and Policy Risks Mount.' The article comments, 'Bond ETFs are getting off to a rocky start in 2026 as expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts give way to renewed geopolitical and policy-related uncertainty. Since the start of the year, the yield on the 10-year Treasury has risen from 4.17% to 4.27%, its highest level in ... five months. The 30-year yield has moved higher as well, climbing from 4.81% to 4.91%.'"
A press release titled, "Franklin Templeton and Binance Advance Strategic Collaboration with Institutional Off-Exchange Collateral Program," tells us, "Franklin Templeton, a global investment leader and Binance, the world's leading cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and users, ... announced a new institutional off-exchange collateral program, making digital markets more secure and capital-efficient. Now live, eligible clients can use tokenized money market fund shares issued through Franklin Templeton's Benji Technology Platform as off-exchange collateral when trading on Binance." (Note: Please join us for our upcoming Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 19-20 in Boston. We hope to see you next month in Boston!)
It continues, "The program alleviates a long-standing pain point for institutional traders by allowing them to use traditional regulated, yield-bearing money market fund assets in digital markets without parking those assets on an exchange. Instead, the value of Benji-issued fund shares is mirrored within Binance's trading environment, while the tokenized assets themselves remain securely held off-exchange in regulated custody. This reduces counterparty risk, letting institutional participants earn yield and support their trading activity without hedging on custody, liquidity, or regulatory protections."
Roger Bayston, Head of Digital Assets at Franklin Templeton, comments, "Since partnering in 2025, our work with Binance has focused on making digital finance actually work for institutions. Our off-exchange collateral program is just that: letting clients easily put their assets to work in regulated custody while safely earning yield in new ways. That's the future Benji was designed for, and working with partners like Binance allows us to deliver it at scale."
Binance Head of VIP & Institutional Catherine Chen, says, "Partnering with Franklin Templeton to offer tokenized real-world assets for off-exchange collateral settlement is a natural next step in our mission to bring digital assets and traditional finance closer together. Innovating ways to use traditional financial instruments on-chain opens up new opportunities for investors and shows just how blockchain technology can make markets more efficient."
The release states, "Assets participating in the program remain held off-exchange in a regulated custody environment, with tokenized money market fund shares pledged as collateral for trading on Binance. Custody and settlement infrastructure is supported by Ceffu, Binance's institutional crypto-native custody partner.... Launching the institutional off-exchange collateral program expands on both Franklin Templeton's and Binance's growing networks of off-exchange program partners and represents another effort since announcing Franklin Templeton and Binance's strategic collaboration in September 2025."
It adds, "By using Benji to bridge tokenized money market funds, Franklin Templeton is taking trusted investment products and making them work in modern markets -- allowing institutions to trade, manage risk, and move capital more efficiently as digital finance becomes an everyday part of the financial system. Offering more tokenized real-world assets on Binance meets the increasing institutional demand for stable, yield-bearing collateral that can settle 24/7. This gives investors greater choice and enhances their trading experience on the world's largest regulated digital asset exchange."
A separate press release, "Uniswap Labs and Securitize Collaborate to Unlock Liquidity Options for BlackRock's BUIDL," states, "Uniswap Labs, the leader in decentralized finance, and Securitize, the leader in tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs), ... announced a strategic integration to make BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) shares available to trade via UniswapX technology. This integration will enable onchain trading of BUIDL, both unlocking new liquidity options for BUIDL holders, and marking a significant step in bridging the gap between traditional finance and DeFi."
Hayden Adams, Uniswap Labs Founder and CEO, tells us, "Our mission at Labs is simple: make exchanging value cheaper, faster and more accessible. Enabling BUIDL on UniswapX with BlackRock and Securitize supercharges our mission by creating efficient markets, better liquidity, and faster settlement. I'm excited to see what we build together."
The release also says, "Securitize Markets will facilitate trading for any BUIDL investor who elects to participate through UniswapX's RFQ framework. The automated system enables participants to identify the most competitive quote from an ecosystem of whitelisted market participants known as subscribers (including Flowdesk, Tokka Labs, and Wintermute), and settles the trade atomically onchain through immutable smart contracts. All investors utilizing the capability are pre-qualified and whitelisted through Securitize."
It continues, "With this integration of UniswapX and Securitize, investors now have the option to access available quotes across the market to swap BUIDL bilaterally with available whitelisted subscribers 24/7, 365 days a year.... BlackRock has also made a strategic investment within the Uniswap ecosystem."
BlackRock's Global Head of Digital Assets Robert Mitchnick adds, "This collaboration with Uniswap Labs alongside Securitize is a notable step in the convergence of tokenized assets with decentralized finance. The integration of BUIDL into UniswapX marks a major leap forward in the interoperability of tokenized USD yield funds with stablecoins."
Crane Data's February Money Fund Portfolio Holdings, with data as of Jan. 31, 2026, show that holdings of Treasuries and Repo both decreased. Money market securities held by Taxable U.S. money funds (tracked by Crane Data) decreased by $54.6 billion to $8.065 trillion in January, after increasing $231.8 billion in December, $134.3 billion in November, $158.4 billion in October, $56.1 billion in September, $166.6 billion in August, $17.6 billion in July, $84.0 billion in June and $72.0 billion in May. They decreased by $73.8 billion in April. Assets rose by $45.6 billion in March and $53.7 billion in February. Treasuries, the largest portfolio composition segment, decreased by $135.2 billion. Repo, the second largest segment, decreased $33.5 billion in January. Agencies were the third largest segment, and CP remained fourth, ahead of CDs, Other/Time Deposits and VRDNs. Below, we review our Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics. (Visit our Content center to download, or contact us to request our latest Portfolio Holdings reports.)
Among taxable money funds, Treasury securities decreased $135.2 billion (-3.9%) to $3.374 trillion, or 41.8% of holdings, after increasing $44.8 billion in December, $67.4 billion in November, $180.5 billion in October, $78.0 billion in September, increasing $414.3 billion in August, increasing $117.3 billion in July, decreasing $98.4 billion in June and decreasing $2.1 billion in May. Repurchase Agreements (repo) decreased $33.5 billion (-1.1%) to $2.949 trillion, or 36.6% of holdings, in January, after increasing $156.0 billion in December, $69.5 billion in November, decreasing $6.0 billion in October, increasing $27.2 billion in September, decreasing $236.2 billion in August, decreasing $128.1 billion in July, increasing $194.2 billion in June and increasing $63.3 billion in May. Government Agency Debt was up $60.5 billion, or 6.0%, to $1.067 trillion, or 13.2% of holdings. Agencies increased $22.9 billion in December, decreased $4.0 billion in November, $2.8 billion in October, increased $22.8 billion in September, decreased $18.7 billion in August, increased $0.8 billion in July, $8.8 billion in June and $4.8 billion in May. Repo, Treasuries and Agency holdings now total $7.390 trillion, representing 91.6% of all taxable holdings.
Money fund holdings of CP and CDs rose while Other (mainly Time Deposits) fell in January. Commercial Paper (CP) increased $39.3 billion (14.1%) to $318.6 billion, or 4.0% of holdings. CP holdings decreased $26.7 billion in December, increased $0.6 billion in November, increased $2.0 billion in October, decreased $18.3 billion in September, increased $7.6 billion in August, and increased $12.3 billion in July. Certificates of Deposit (CDs) increased $23.2 billion (12.6%) to $206.9 billion, or 2.6% of taxable assets. CDs decreased $0.7 billion in December, decreased $5.1 billion in November, increased $0.1 billion in October, decreased $16.5 billion in September, increased $3.4 billion in August, and increased $1.9 billion in July. Other holdings, primarily Time Deposits, decreased $8.7 billion (-6.1%) to $133.3 billion, or 1.7% of holdings, after increasing $34.5 billion in December, increasing $6.2 billion in November, decreasing $15.8 billion in October, $36.8 billion in September, decreasing $4.4 billion in August and increasing $13.0 billion in July. VRDNs decreased to $16.1 billion, or 0.2% of assets. (Note: This total is VRDNs for taxable funds only. We will post our Tax Exempt MMF holdings separately Wednesday around noon.)
Prime money fund assets tracked by Crane Data increased to $1.367 trillion, or 16.9% of taxable money funds' $8.065 trillion total. Among Prime money funds, CDs represent 15.1% (up from 13.8% a month ago), while Commercial Paper accounted for 23.3% (up from 21.0% a month ago). The CP totals are comprised of: Financial Company CP, which makes up 14.3% of total holdings, Asset-Backed CP, which accounts for 6.7%, and Non-Financial Company CP, which makes up 2.3%. Prime funds also hold 0.7% in US Govt Agency Debt, 9.4% in US Treasury Debt, 15.6% in US Treasury Repo, 1.2% in Other Instruments, 6.6% in Non-Negotiable Time Deposits, 10.7% in Other Repo, 16.0% in US Government Agency Repo and 0.9% in VRDNs.
Government money fund portfolios totaled $4.392 trillion (54.5% of all MMF assets), down from $4.411 trillion in December, while Treasury money fund assets totaled another $2.301 trillion (28.5%), down from $2.370 trillion the prior month. Government money fund portfolios were made up of 24.0% US Govt Agency Debt, 17.2% US Government Agency Repo, 33.1% US Treasury Debt, 25.2% in US Treasury Repo, 0.3% in Other Instruments. Treasury money funds were comprised of 77.8% US Treasury Debt and 22.1% in US Treasury Repo. Government and Treasury funds combined now total $6.693 trillion, or 83.0% of all taxable money fund assets.
European-affiliated holdings (including repo) increased by $122.0 billion in January to $723.7 billion; their share of holdings rose to 9.0% from last month's 7.4%. Eurozone-affiliated holdings increased to $496.8 billion from last month's $407.6 billion; they now account for 6.2% of overall taxable money fund holdings. Asia & Pacific related holdings were up at $342.3 billion (4.2% of the total) from last month's $326.9 billion. Americas related holdings decreased to $6.992 trillion from last month's $7.186 trillion; they now represent 86.7% of holdings.
The overall taxable fund Repo totals were made up of: US Treasury Repurchase Agreements (down $96.5 billion, or -5.0%, to $1.828 trillion, or 22.7% of assets); US Government Agency Repurchase Agreements (up $53.2 billion, or 5.8%, to $975.4 billion, or 12.1% of total holdings), and Other Repurchase Agreements (up $9.8 billion, or 7.2%, to $146.0 billion, or 1.8% of holdings). The Commercial Paper totals were comprised of Financial Company Commercial Paper (up $17.4 billion to $194.8 billion, or 2.4% of assets), Asset-Backed Commercial Paper (up $7.1 billion to $91.9 billion, or 1.1%), and Non-Financial Company Commercial Paper (up $14.7 billion to $31.9 billion, or 0.4%).
The 20 largest Issuers to taxable money market funds as of Jan. 31, 2026, include: the US Treasury ($3.374T, 41.8%), Fixed Income Clearing Corp ($1.157T, 14.3%), Federal Home Loan Bank ($741.0B, 9.2%), JP Morgan ($324.4B, 4.0%), Federal Farm Credit Bank ($201.8B, 2.5%), Wells Fargo ($184.1B, 2.3%), Citi ($180.0B, 2.2%), BNP Paribas ($164.9B, 2.0%), RBC ($150.7B, 1.9%), Bank of America ($109.1B, 1.4%), Barclays PLC ($102.3B, 1.3%), Credit Agricole ($94.1B, 1.2%), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp ($92.2B, 1.1%), Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp ($70.7B, 0.9%), Toronto-Dominion Bank ($66.2B, 0.8%), Goldman Sachs ($66.1B, 0.8%), Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc ($58.3B, 0.7%), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce ($57.1B, 0.7%), Bank of Montreal ($49.6B, 0.6%) and the Federal National Mortgage Association ($49.1B, 0.6%).
In the repo space, the 10 largest Repo counterparties (dealers) with the amount of repo outstanding and market share (among the money funds we track) include: Fixed Income Clearing Corp ($1.138T, 38.6%), JP Morgan ($312.6B, 10.6%), Wells Fargo ($177.3B, 6.0%), Citi ($173.6B, 5.9%), BNP Paribas ($157.6B, 5.3%), RBC ($106.4B, 3.6%), Barclays PLC ($79.1B, 2.7%), Bank of America ($78.2B, 2.7%), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp ($77.2B, 2.6%) and Credit Agricole ($75.2B, 2.6%).
The largest users of the $3.3 billion in Fed RRP include: T Rowe Price Govt Reserve Fund ($2.3B), UBS Select Treasury Fund ($0.8B), AB Govt Money Market ($0.3B), Cavanal Hill Govt Svc MM ($0.0B) and Cavanal Hill US Treas ($0.0B).
The 10 largest issuers of "credit" -- CDs, CP and Other securities (including Time Deposits and Notes) combined -- include: Toronto-Dominion Bank ($45.1B, 7.8%), RBC ($44.3B, 7.6%), Bank of America ($30.9B, 5.3%), Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd ($25.8B, 4.4%), Barclays PLC ($23.2B, 4.0%), ING Bank ($23.2B, 4.0%), Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc ($22.3B, 3.8%), Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank ($20.4B, 3.5%), Credit Agricole ($18.9B, 3.3%) and Fixed Income Clearing Corp ($18.3B, 3.2%).
The 10 largest CD issuers include: Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank ($18.2B, 8.8%), Toronto-Dominion Bank ($16.6B, 8.0%), Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc ($15.1B, 7.3%), Bank of America ($14.1B, 6.8%), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp ($12.7B, 6.1%), Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd ($11.9B, 5.8%), Credit Agricole ($11.6B, 5.6%), Barclays PLC ($11.0B, 5.3%), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce ($9.1B, 4.4%) and Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation ($7.9B, 3.8%).
The 10 largest CP issuers (we include affiliated ABCP programs) include: RBC ($29.5B, 10.3%), Toronto-Dominion Bank ($22.3B, 7.8%), JP Morgan ($11.8B, 4.1%), Bank of Montreal ($9.9B, 3.5%), Barclays PLC ($9.7B, 3.4%), National Bank of Canada ($9.7B, 3.4%), Bank of Nova Scotia ($9.3B, 3.3%), DNB ASA ($7.8B, 2.7%), Bank of America ($7.6B, 2.7%) and ING Bank ($7.6B, 2.7%).
The largest increases among Issuers include: the Federal Home Loan Bank (up $64.2B to $741.0B), JP Morgan (up $59.0B to $324.4B), Citi (up $30.5B to $180.0B), Barclays PLC (up $23.7B to $102.3B), ING Bank (up $22.9B to $35.4B), Morgan Stanley (up $21.9B to $22.6B), Credit Agricole (up $21.6B to $94.1B), Wells Fargo (up $16.3B to $184.1B), BNP Paribas (up $15.1B to $164.9B) and Bank of America (up $14.5B to $109.1B).
The largest decreases among Issuers of money market securities (including Repo) in January were shown by: the US Treasury (down $135.2B to $3.374T), Fixed Income Clearing Corp (down $115.4B to $1.157T), RBC (down $86.2B to $150.7B), Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp (down $13.5B to $70.7B), Standard Chartered Bank (down $8.7B to $12.7B), Bank of Montreal (down $7.2B to $49.6B), Goldman Sachs (down $3.7B to $66.1B), Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd (down $2.5B to $46.5B), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (down $1.7B to $57.1B) and Bank of Nova Scotia (down $1.6B to $31.1B).
The United States remained the largest segment of country-affiliations; it represents 82.1% of holdings, or $6.621 trillion. Canada (4.6%, $371.2B) was in second place, while France (4.4%, $354.5B) ranked third. Japan (3.4%, $271.2B) occupied fourth place. The United Kingdom (2.2%, $179.3B) remained in fifth place. Netherlands (0.7%, $53.2B) was sixth, followed by Australia (0.7%, $52.1B), Spain (0.5%, $43.7B), Germany (0.5%, $43.1B), and Sweden (0.3%, $27.6B). (Note: Crane Data attributes Treasury and Government repo to the dealer's parent country of origin, though money funds themselves "look-through" and consider these U.S. government securities. All money market securities must be U.S. dollar-denominated.)
As of Jan. 31, 2026, Taxable money funds held 46.1% (down from 46.6%) of their assets in securities maturing Overnight, and another 10.1% maturing in 2-7 days (up from 9.1%). Thus, 56.2% in total matures in 1-7 days. Another 9.4% matures in 8-30 days, while 11.6% matures in 31-60 days. Note that over three-quarters, or 77.1% of securities, mature in 60 days or less, the dividing line for use of amortized cost accounting under SEC regulations. The next bucket, 61-90 days, holds 7.4% of taxable securities, while 10.9% matures in 91-180 days, and just 4.6% matures beyond 181 days.
Crane Data's latest monthly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics will be sent out Tuesday, and we'll be writing our regular monthly update on the new January data for Wednesday's News. But we also already uploaded a separate and broader Portfolio Holdings data set based on the SEC's Form N-MFP filings on Monday. (We continue to merge the two series, and the N-MFP version is now available via our Portfolio Holdings file listings to Money Fund Wisdom subscribers.) Our new N-MFP summary, with data as of January 31, includes holdings information from 982 money funds (down 5 from last month), representing assets of $8.192 trillion (down from $8.298 trillion a month ago). Prime MMFs rose to $1.258 trillion (up from $1.229 trillion), or 15.4% of the total. We review the new N-MFP data and we also look at our revised MMF expense data, which shows charged expenses were mostly flat and money fund revenues rose to $21.7 billion (annualized) in January. (Note: Please join us for our upcoming Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 19-20 in Boston. We hope to see you later next month!)
Our latest Form N-MFP Summary for All Funds (taxable and tax-exempt) shows Treasuries and Repurchase Agreements (Repo) remain the largest types of portfolio holdings in money market funds. Treasury holdings in money market funds now total $3.362 trillion (down from $3.515 trillion), or 41.0% of all assets, while Repo holdings fell to $2.948 trillion (down from $2.992 trillion), or 36.0% of all holdings. Government Agency securities total $1.057 trillion (up from $1.011 trillion), or 12.9%. Holdings of Treasuries, Government agencies and Repo (almost all of which is backed by Treasuries and agencies) combined total $7.367 trillion, or a massive 89.9% of all holdings.
The Other category (primarily Time Deposits) totals $142.5 billion (up from $109.6 billion), or 1.7%, and Commercial Paper (CP) totals $329.5 billion (up from $318.5 billion), or 4.0% of all holdings. Certificates of Deposit (CDs) total $206.7 billion (up from $196.8 billion), 2.5%, and VRDNs account for $146.3 billion (down from $155.0 billion), or 1.8% of money fund securities.
Broken out into the SEC's more detailed categories, the CP totals were comprised of: $195.5 billion, or 2.4%, in Financial Company Commercial Paper; $91.1 billion, or 1.1%, in Asset Backed Commercial Paper; and $42.8 billion, or 0.5%, in Non-Financial Company Commercial Paper. The Repo totals were made up of: U.S. Treasury Repo ($1.832 trillion, or 22.4%), U.S. Govt Agency Repo ($963.2 billion, or 11.8%) and Other Repo ($152.9 billion, or 1.9%).
The N-MFP Holdings summary for the Prime Money Market Funds shows: CP holdings of $285.1 billion (up from $278.1 billion), or 22.7%; Repo holdings of $538.1 billion (down from $566.2 billion), or 42.8%; Treasury holdings of $129.6 billion (up from $122.9 billion), or 10.3%; CD holdings of $180.2 billion (up from $171.7 billion), or 14.3%; Other (primarily Time Deposits) holdings of $103.6 billion (up from $71.5 billion), or 8.2%; Government Agency holdings of $9.3 billion (up from $7.5 billion), or 0.7%; and VRDN holdings of $11.5 billion (unchanged), or 0.9%.
The SEC's more detailed categories show CP in Prime MMFs made up of: $177.4 billion (down from $182.8 billion), or 14.1%, in Financial Company Commercial Paper; $77.0 billion (up from $76.4 billion), or 6.1%, in Asset Backed Commercial Paper; and $30.6 billion (up from $18.8 billion), or 2.4%, in Non-Financial Company Commercial Paper. The Repo totals include: U.S. Treasury Repo ($193.2 billion, or 15.4%), U.S. Govt Agency Repo ($209.8 billion, or 16.7%), and Other Repo ($135.1 billion, or 10.7%).
In related news, money fund charged expense ratios (Exp%) were mostly flat in January. Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index and Crane Money Fund Average were 0.27% and 0.37%, respectively, as of January 31, 2026. Crane Data revises its monthly expense data and gross yield information after the SEC updates its latest Form N-MFP data the morning of the 6th business day of the new month. (They posted this info Monday morning, so we revised our monthly MFI XLS spreadsheet and historical craneindexes.xlsx averages file to reflect the latest expenses, gross yields, portfolio composition and maturity breakout.) Visit our "Content" page for the latest files.
Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index, a simple average of the 100 largest taxable money funds, shows an average charged expense ratio of 0.27% unchanged from last month's level (also 19 bps higher than 12/31/21's 0.08%). The Crane Money Fund Average, a simple average of all taxable MMFs, showed a charged expense ratio of 0.37% as of January 31, 2026, unchanged from the month prior and slightly below the 0.40% at year-end 2019.
Crane Data's latest monthly Money Fund Market Share rankings show assets mixed among the largest U.S. money fund complexes in January, after jumping in November and December. Assets have increased in 18 of the past 19 months (only April 2025 saw declines). Money market fund assets rose by $38.5 billion, or 0.5%, last month to a record $8.156 trillion. Total MMF assets have increased by $300.6 billion, or 3.8%, over the past 3 months, and they've increased by $923.6 billion, or 12.8%, over the past 12 months. The largest increases among the 25 largest managers last month were seen by Vanguard, American Funds, JPMorgan, Invesco and Morgan Stanley, which grew assets by $20.1 billion, $17.3B, $16.5B, $10.3B and $9.1B, respectively. Declines in January were seen by BlackRock, Fidelity, Federated Hermes, Goldman Sachs and DWS, which decreased by $19.1 billion, $17.4B, $5.5B, $5.1B and $3.6B, respectively. Our domestic U.S. "Family" rankings are available in our MFI XLS product, our global rankings are available in our MFI International product. The combined "Family & Global Rankings" are available to Money Fund Wisdom subscribers. We review the latest market share totals, and look at money fund yields, which were lower in January.
Over the past year through Jan. 31, 2026, Fidelity (up $181.0B, or 12.2%), JPMorgan (up $133.2B, or 17.0%), Vanguard (up $105.0B, or 16.2%), BlackRock (up $98.9B, or 16.5%) and Schwab (up $82.2B, or 13.5%) were the largest gainers. JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, SSIM, Fidelity and Franklin Templeton had the largest asset increases over the past 3 months, rising by $76.5B, $46.2B, $44.4B, $39.2B and $38.5B, respectively. The largest decline over 12 months was seen by: DWS (down $3.8B). The largest declines over 3 months included: American Funds (down $6.6B), Goldman Sachs (down $6.0B), RBC (down $4.4B), DWS (down $2.3B) and Invesco (down $2.1B).
Our latest domestic U.S. Money Fund Family Rankings show that Fidelity Investments remains the largest money fund manager with $1.661 trillion, or 20.4% of all assets. Fidelity was down $17.4B in January, up $39.2B over 3 mos., and up $181.0B over 12 months. JPMorgan ranked second with $917.0 billion, or 11.2% market share (up $16.5B, up $76.5B and up $133.2B for the past 1-month, 3-mos. and 12-mos., respectively). Vanguard ranked in third place with $752.8 billion, or 9.2% of assets (up $20.1B, up $34.2B and up $105.0B). BlackRock ranked fourth with $696.7 billion, or 8.5% market share (down $19.1B, up $16.6B and up $98.9B), while Schwab was the fifth largest MMF manager with $692.7 billion, or 8.5% of assets (down $1.5B, up $17.5B and up $82.2B for the past 1-month, 3-mos. and 12-mos.).
Federated Hermes was in sixth place with $520.0 billion, or 6.4% (down $5.5B, up $16.0B and up $36.7B), while Goldman Sachs was in seventh place with $473.2 billion, or 5.8% of assets (down $5.1B, down $6.0B and up $25.0B). BNY Dreyfus ($342.1B, or 4.2%) was in eighth place (up $229M, up $1.7B and up $42.3B), followed by Morgan Stanley ($333.8B, or 4.1%; up $9.1B, up $46.2B and up $38.9B). SSIM was in 10th place ($300.7B, or 3.7%; down $2.8B, up $44.4B and up $47.4B).
The 11th through 20th-largest U.S. money fund managers (in order) include: Allspring ($233.8B, or 2.9%), Northern ($201.7B, or 2.5%), First American ($190.5B, or 2.3%), Invesco ($165.1B, or 2.0%), American Funds ($152.3B, or 1.9%), UBS ($126.3B, or 1.5%), T Rowe Price ($53.9B, or 0.7%), HSBC ($51.1B, or 0.6%), Franklin Templeton ($49.0B, or 0.6%) and DWS ($36.0B, or 0.4%). Crane Data currently tracks 58 U.S. MMF managers, down 2 from last month.
When European and "offshore" money fund assets -- those domiciled in places like Ireland, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands -- are included, the top 10 managers are the same as the domestic list, except: BlackRock moves up to the No. 3 spot and Vanguard moves down to the No. 4 spot. Goldman Sachs moves up to the No. 6 spot, while Federated Hermes moves down to the No. 7 spot. Morgan Stanley moves up to the No. 8 spot while BNY Dreyfus moves down to the No. 9 spot. Global Money Fund Manager Rankings include the combined market share assets of our MFI XLS (domestic U.S.) and our MFI International ("offshore") products.
The largest Global money market fund families include: Fidelity ($1.685 trillion), JP Morgan ($1.211 trillion), BlackRock ($1.057 trillion), Vanguard ($752.8B) and Schwab ($692.7B). Goldman Sachs ($638.3B) was in sixth, Federated Hermes ($533.3B) was seventh, followed by Morgan Stanley ($442.2B), Dreyfus/BNY ($405.2B) and SSIM ($352.1B), which round out the top 10. These totals include "offshore" U.S. Dollar money funds, as well as Euro and Pound Sterling (GBP) funds converted into U.S. dollar totals.
The February issue of our Money Fund Intelligence and MFI XLS, with data as of 1/31/26, shows that yields were down in January across all the Crane Money Fund Indexes. The Crane Money Fund Average, which includes all taxable funds covered by Crane Data (currently 727), was 3.40% (down 7 bps) for the 7-Day Yield (annualized, net) Average, the 30-Day Yield was down 10 bps to 3.42%. The MFA's Gross 7-Day Yield was at 3.77% (down 7 bps), and the Gross 30-Day Yield was down 10 bps at 3.79%. (Gross yields will be revised once we download the SEC's Form N-MFP data for 1/31/26 on Monday.)
Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index shows an average 7-Day (Net) Yield of 3.50% (down 8 bps) and an average 30-Day Yield at 3.51% (down 11 bps). The Crane 100 shows a Gross 7-Day Yield of 3.77% (down 8 bps), and a Gross 30-Day Yield of 3.78% (down 11 bps). Our Prime Institutional MF Index (7-day) yielded 3.62% (down 6 bps) as of January 31. The Crane Govt Inst Index was at 3.50% (down 7 bps) and the Treasury Inst Index was at 3.46% (down 8 bps). Thus, the spread between Prime funds and Treasury funds is 16 basis points, and the spread between Prime funds and Govt funds is 12 basis points. The Crane Prime Retail Index yielded 3.39% (down 6 bps), while the Govt Retail Index was 3.21% (down 7 bps), the Treasury Retail Index was 3.22% (down 9 bps from the month prior). The Crane Tax Exempt MF Index yielded 1.79% (down 90 bps) at the end of January.
Gross 7-Day Yields for these indexes to end January were: Prime Inst 3.86% (down 6 bps), Govt Inst 3.75% (down 7 bps), Treasury Inst 3.74% (down 8 bps), Prime Retail 3.88% (down 6 bps), Govt Retail 3.74% (down 7 bps) and Treasury Retail 3.74% (down 9 bps). The Crane Tax Exempt Index fell to 2.17% (down 90 bps). The Crane 100 MF Index returned on average 0.30% over 1-month, 0.93% over 3-months, 0.30% YTD, 4.06% over the past 1-year, 4.67% over 3-years annualized), 3.14% over 5-years, and 2.05% over 10-years.
The total number of funds, including taxable and tax-exempt, was unchanged in January at 838. There are currently 727 taxable funds, unchanged from the previous month, and 111 tax-exempt money funds (unchanged from last month). (Contact us if you'd like to see our latest MFI XLS, Crane Indexes or Market Share report.)
The February issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Friday morning, features the articles: "MMF Assets Cool Down in January; Seasonal Trends," which discusses the slowing growth in money funds; "Federated Hermes' Q4'25 Call Talks Flows, Tokenized MMFs," which cites highlights from the recent earnings call; and "PFII on CA, NY, NH and PA LGIPs; Seeking Disclosures," which reviews a recent article from The Public Funds Investment Institute. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Friday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 1/31/25 data. Our February Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Tuesday, Feb. 10, and our February Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Friday, Feb. 13.
MFI's "MMF Assets Cool Down" story says, "Money fund assets increased by $38.5 billion to a record $8.160 trillion in January, according to our Money Fund Intelligence XLS. The asset slowdown follows 5 straight months of $100+ billion increases, but normally January sees outflows. We show the average monthly change in money fund assets over the past 15 years (2011-2025) in the chart below. January is the second weakest month (after June) and normally sees outflows of about $14 billion. (Note that March and April are normally very weak, but these were inflated by huge inflows in 2020 due to the Covid shutdown and 2023 due to the SVB bankruptcy.)"
The story continues, "Assets increased by $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, $6.7 billion in June and $100.9 billion in May. MMFs fell by $24.4 billion in April, but rose $2.8 trillion in March, $94.2 billion in February and $52.8 billion last January. 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."
We write in the "Federated," story, "Federated Hermes reported it Q4'25 earnings and hosted its Q4'25 earnings call late last week. In the press release, President & CEO J. Christopher Donahue, says, 'Federated Hermes' record assets at year-end were again driven by money market asset increases, as our liquidity products provided attractive cash management resources and opportunities for risk adjusted returns. We also continued to see ... interest in our growing range of investment solutions beyond mutual funds, including ETFs, CITs and SMAs.'"
It adds, "Donahue explains on the call, 'We reached another record high at the end of 2025 for total money market assets, which increased by $30 billion to reach $683 billion. Money market fund assets increased by $16 billion or 3% in Q4 to reach a record high of $508 billion. Money market separate accounts increased by $14 billion in the fourth quarter, reflecting seasonal patterns. Market conditions remain favorable for cash as an asset class. In addition to the appeal of relative safety in periods of volatility, money market strategies present opportunities to earn attractive yields compared to alternatives such as bank deposits and direct investments in T-bills and commercial paper.'"
Our "LGIP" article says, "The Public Funds Investment Institute (PFII) writes on 'LGIPs: New Pools and Manager Changes.' They explain, 'In October 2024 we wrote about local government investment pools changing managers. It's unusual but not unheard of in the LGIP business. Sometimes an LGIP simply replaces a manager and sometimes local governments band together to create a new fund to bring in a manager or expand competition in a state. We've seen both recently.'"
It continues, "The PFII writes, 'California: CalFIT (California Fixed Income Trust) is a new LGIP that began offering a stable value portfolio in the fall. It invests in government and high grade corporate and bank obligations and is managed by Chandler Asset Management, a California based firm that entered the LGIP business in 2024 when it replaced Public Trust Advisors as manager of the FL SAFE LGIP in Florida. As of December 31, 2025, CalFIT reported $331 million in assets. California has a long-established state-sponsored and three other local sponsored LGIPs. Large states are well able to support multiple LGIPs. California joins Florida and Texas in this regard.'"
MFI also includes the News brief, "Money Fund Yields Stabilize at 3.5%, Lowest Since 11/22." It says, "Yields (7-day, annualized, simple, net) fell by 8 bps to 3.50% on average during January (as measured by our Crane 100 Money Fund Index). Fund yields should remain flat given that the Fed left rates unchanged at its Jan. 28 meeting. Yields haven't been below 3.5% since Nov. 2022. They're down from a recent high of 5.20% in Nov. 2023. MMF yields were 3.58% on 12/31/25, 3.94% on 9/30, 4.13% on 6/30, 4.14% on 3/31/25 and 4.28% on average on 12/​31/​24. MMFs averaged 4.75% on 9/30/24, 5.10% on 6/28/24, 5.14% on 3/31/24 and 5.20% on 12/31/23."
Another News brief, "Fed Z.1 Shows Jump in Household, Corporate Assets; T-Bills Surge in Q3," comments, "The Federal Reserve's latest quarterly 'Z.1 Financial Accounts of the United States' statistical survey (a.k.a. 'Flow of Funds') includes 4 tables on money market mutual funds. The Third Quarter 2025 edition shows that Total MMF Assets increased by $293 billion to $7.774 trillion in Q3’25. The Household Sector, by far the largest investor segment with $5.035 trillion, saw the biggest asset increase in Q3, followed by Nonfinancial Corporate Business and Other Financial Business (formerly Funding Corps). The Fed’s latest Z.1 numbers, which contain one of the few looks at money fund investor segments available, also showed noticeable increases for the Mutual Funds and Rest of the World categories in Q3 2025."
A third News brief, "MMFs in Retirement Plans Approach $1 Trillion," says: "The Investment Company Institute published, 'Retirement Assets Total $48.1 Trillion in Third Quarter 2025,' which includes data tables showing that money market funds held in retirement accounts jumped to $987 billion (up from $966 billion) in the latest quarter, accounting for 13% of the total $7.321 trillion in money funds. MMFs represent just 6.8% of the total $14.5 trillion of mutual funds in retirement accounts."
A sidebar, "BlackRock Q4 Call on Cash," says, "BlackRock CFO Martin Small comments on their latest earnings call, 'BlackRock Cash Management saw $74 billion of net inflows in the fourth quarter and $131 billion in 2025, driven by U.S. Government, International, Prime and Circle Reserve Funds. BlackRock’s platform is anchored by growth engines tied to the long-term expansion of global capital markets and fast-growing client product channels.'"
Our February MFI XLS, with January 31 data, shows total assets rose $38.5 billion to a record high $8.160 trillion, after increasing $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, $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 last February.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was down 7 bps at 3.40%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was down 8 bps at 3.50% in January. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 3.77% and 3.77%. Charged Expenses averaged 0.37% and 0.27% for the Crane MFA and the Crane 100. (We'll revise expenses once we upload the SEC's Form N-MFP data for 1/31/26 on Monday, 2/9.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 39 days (up 1 day) and the Crane 100 WAM was up 2 days from the previous month at 42 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)
Crane Data is ramping up preparations for our ninth annual ultra-short bond fund event, Bond Fund Symposium, which will take place March 19-20, 2026 at the Hyatt Regency in Boston, Mass. Crane's Bond Fund Symposium offers a concentrated and affordable educational experience, as well as an excellent networking venue, for bond fund and fixed-income professionals, and enhanced cash investors. Registrations are now being accepted ($1,000) and speaking and sponsorship opportunities are still available. We review the latest agenda and details below, and we also give an update on our upcoming big show, Money Fund Symposium, which will be held this June in Jersey City, NJ, June 24-26. (Note: Crane Data will also be celebrating its 20th Birthday at the BFS Cocktail Party, March 19, from 5-7pm, and Boston locals are welcome to stop by and check out the conference and party!)
Bond Fund Symposium's Day One (3/19) morning agenda includes: Ultra-Short Bond Fund Update: Spring Break with Teresa Ho of J.P. Morgan Securities and Jerome Schneider of PIMCO; State of the Bond Fund Marketplace, with Lei Li of ICI and Peter Crane of Crane Data; and Bond Market Strategists: Rates & Returns, with Will Hoffman of Bloomberg Intelligence. (Note: The agenda is still shifting slightly, so let us know if you're interested in speaking or have any requests!)
The Day One afternoon agenda includes: Senior Portfolio Manager Perspectives moderated by Peter Crane of Crane Data with Richard Mejzak of BlackRock, Dave Rothweiler of UBS Asset Management and Dave Martucci of J.P. Morgan A.M.; LGIPs, SMAs & Stable Value Funds moderated by John Donohue of RBC Global A.M. with Kelsey Bosshard of RBC Global AM, Peter Gargiulo of Fitch Ratings and Patricia Kao of Silicon Valley Bank; Stable Value & Core Bond Fund Issues with Kevin Calabro of Franklin Templeton and Michael Salvay of Payden & Rygel; and, ETF Index & Near-Cash ETF Trends featuring Marcel Benjamin of State Street's SPDR Fixed-Income Group, James Palmieri of State Street Investment Management and Rahul Ghai of S&P Global Ratings. Thursday will close with a reception sponsored by Northern Trust (which is open to anyone in the area to "crash").
Day Two's agenda includes: Money Funds & Conservative Ultra-Shorts with Peter Crane of Crane Data and Morten Olsen of Northern Trust A.M.; Regulatory Update: Bond Fund Issues '26 with Louis Rosenbaum of Dechert LLP and Jamie Gershkow of Stradley Ronon; Sustainable & European Bond Fund Update with Henry Shilling of Sustainable Research & Analysis and John Hunt of Sullivan & Worcester LLP; and, Bond Fund Data & Information with Peter Crane of Crane Data.
Portfolio managers, analysts, investors, issuers, service providers, and anyone interested in expanding their knowledge of bond funds and fixed-income investing will benefit from our comprehensive program. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Hyatt Regency Boston. We'd like to thank our sponsors and exhibitors -- Northern Trust Asset Management, Capitolis, UBS Asset Management, Mayer Brown, Northcross, Fitch Ratings, Fidelity Investments, J.P. Morgan, Bloomberg Intelligence, Payden & Rygel, PIMCO and Dechert -- for their support. (We'd also love to get some new ones!) E-mail us for more details, and let us know if you'd like to request a free ticket or 2-for-1 deal!
Also, our annual Money Fund Symposium will be held June 24-26, 2026 at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City. Crane's Money Fund Symposium covers the latest trends in money funds, interest rates, regulations, ratings, and money market instruments such as commercial paper, CDs and repo. We also include segments on offshore money funds, money market ETFs, stablecoin reserves and tokenized money funds.
Money Fund Symposium is run by Crane Data, publisher of the Money Fund Intelligence newsletter. It offers money market portfolio managers, investors, issuers, dealers and service providers a concentrated and affordable educational experience and informal networking venue. Registration is $1,000 and includes meals, beverages, binders and t-shirts. Exhibit space is $3,000 (and includes 2 tickets); and sponsorship opportunities are $4.5K (3 tickets), $6K (4 tickets), $7.5K (5 tickets) and $10K (8 tickets). The latest MFS agenda is available online and we are now taking registrations. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City.
We'll also soon start making plans for our European Money Fund Symposium, which will be held Sept. 24-25, 2026, at The Pullman Hotel in Paris, France. (Let us know if you'd like details on speaking or sponsoring.) Finally, mark your calendars for our next Money Fund University, which will be held Dec. 17-18 in Greenwich, Conn. Watch for details on these shows in coming weeks and months, and we hope to see you in Boston, Jersey City, Paris or Greenwich in 2026!
A court decision from the U.S. District Court of Minnesota tells us, "Defendants U.S. Bancorp and U.S. Bancorp Investments, Inc., provide a bank-deposit (or 'cash-sweep') program for investment-account customers. Under the program, uninvested cash balances in participating customers' accounts are periodically transferred (or swept) into interest-bearing deposit accounts, and customers are paid interest. Plaintiffs Adam Saul Futo and James Bartley Ellis are two investment-account customers who participated in Defendants' cash-sweep program. In this would-be class action, Mr. Futo and Mr. Ellis allege that Defendants paid them and all other participating customers unreasonably low, below-market interest rates. Plaintiffs invoke subject-matter jurisdiction under CAFA and assert several claims arising under state law." (Note: Register soon for our upcoming Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 19-20 in Boston. We hope to see you later next month!)
The decision continues, "Defendants seek dismissal under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). The motion will be granted. To summarize, Minnesota's independent-duty rule bars Plaintiffs' negligence claim. Plaintiffs do not allege facts plausibly showing a fiduciary relationship; if they did, they do not allege facts plausibly showing a fiduciary duty was breached. Nor do Plaintiffs plausibly allege that the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing was breached. Plaintiffs' misrepresentation and fraud claims -- whether they are common-law or statutory claims -- fail for overlapping reasons."
It says, "The primary dismissal-prompting problem is that Defendants fully disclosed the program's interest-payment arrangement and did not commit to paying a 'reasonable' or minimum interest rate. The unjust-enrichment claim fails because a contract covers the complained-of behavior and Plaintiffs have not plausibly alleged the contract might be unenforceable. For legal and practical reasons, Plaintiffs will not be given an opportunity to amend, and the operative Amended Complaint will be dismissed with prejudice."
For more on brokerage sweep lawsuits, see these Crane Data News stories: "Crane 100 Money Fund Index Up to 3.​58%; FINRA Fines APFS on Sweeps" (1/6/26), "BNY to Manage OpenEden Tokenized $TBILL Fund; Schwab Sweeps Sued" (8/18/25), "Weekly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings; Barron's: SEC Done w/MS Sweeps" (5/21/25), "MMF Assets Plunge on Tax Outflows; ignites on Brokerage Sweep Suits" (4/21/25), "Weekly Portfolio Holdings; Inv News on Pershing Cash Grab; Osaic Suit" (2/20/25), "MMF Assets Plunge on Tax Outflows; ignites on Brokerage Sweep Suits" (4/21/25), "WSJ: SEC, Brokerage Sweeps Settle" (1/21/25), "Schwab Latest Firm Sued Over Sweeps; BlackRock's Small: MMFs Stickier" (12/12/24), "Wells Quiet on Sweeps on Q3 Call" (10/18/24), "Barron's Writes on Brokerage Sweep Woes; Reuters on Rate Cuts, MMFs" (9/23/24), "Alight Money Fund Liquidates; Bloomberg Law on Brokerage Sweep Suits" (9/19/24), "Sept. MFI: Sticking with Prime Inst; MMFs Hit Record; Sweeps Scrutiny" (9/9/24), "Barron's: JPMorgan Sued on Sweeps" (8/29/24), "More on SEC Sweeps Scrutiny; Inv News on Sweeps, UBS's Earnings Call" (8/20/24), "Law Firm Says Bolster Disclosures, Rates on Sweeps; Crane Index 5.11%" (8/13/24), "Barron's: BofA Cites Risk from Sweeps" (8/8/24), "Central Bank of Ireland on Fund Regulations; Brokerage Sweeps Lawsuits" (8/5/24), "Tradeweb Completes ICD Acquisition; AdvisorHub on Wells Sweep Suit" (8/2/24) and "IN: Ameriprise Sued Over Sweeps" (7/31/24).
In other news, Risk.net writes, "MMF investments hit new high after $1trn gained over 2025." They explain, "Money market funds (MMFs) scooped a record $8.31 trillion of investments at the end of last year, capping off a year in which overall holdings grew by more than $1 trillion for only the second time. The total rose 3% in December and 14.5% year on year. Among the assets held by MMFs, US Treasuries were the most common at $3.52 trillion, up 17.5% over the year and a record high."
They write, "Reverse repos climbed 14.3% to $2.99 trillion in 2025, a similar rate of growth to federal agency and government-sponsored enterprise securities, which ended the year on $1.01 trillion -- the first 13-figure amount since April 2020. Bank-related assets were the only asset type to shrink year-on year, by 2.7% to $451.8 billion. Other assets -- a residual category including municipal securities, commercial paper, asset-backed securities and uncategorised assets -- grew 14.2% to $328.3 billion."
The piece explains, "The Office of Financial Research publishes monthly MMF portfolio data based on Form N-MFP filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission by the funds. These reports provide detailed breakdowns by counterparty type, tenor and collateral. MMF repo exposures are categorised by whether they are placed with the Fed's ON RRP facility, netted or cleared via FICC, or conducted with other counterparties -- primarily financial institutions -- further split into US- or foreign-parented entities."
It tells us, "Since 2017, MMFs have been able to access FICC's clearing platforms under a 'sponsorship' model via dealer-members for the delivery-versus-payment service, and since 2021 for the general collateral financing service. December's figures are the latest in a prolonged period of steep growth for MMF investments. In the first decade of data, yearly growth only topped 10% twice, one instance of which was the pandemic-stricken 2020. By contrast, the last three years have seen increases of 22.8%, 13.3% and now 14.5%. In absolute terms, the $3.09 trillion growth in those three years exceeds the $2.17 trillion added over the previous 12."
Finally, the article comments, "This growth could stem from multiple sources. Prolonged high interest rates have made MMFs attractive as investments given their low risk combined with relatively healthy reward. Macro concerns have also enhanced the appeal of short-term debt instruments over long-term ones, supporting appetite for MMFs. Furthermore, the funds act as a safe haven, as seen in the Covid-19 pandemic, so the geopolitical instability of 2025 that has seen gold and silver hit record highs could also have driven investment flows to MMFs. One notable trend in the last six months has been the surge in US Treasuries, which have risen by $903.8 billion since June. Whether this appetite continues could have implications for 2026, for which public debt was one of investors' top 10 concerns."
The Office of Financial Research (OFR) posted a blog that asks, "How Will Central Clearing Impact the Repo Market?" It states, "The U.S. repurchase agreement (repo) market serves as a core channel for liquidity in the U.S. Treasury market. As of August 2025, over $8 trillion in U.S. Treasury-collateralized repo was outstanding, much of which is renegotiated daily. Short-term repos provide market participants with low-cost funding sources that support the smooth functioning of broader financial markets. However, these sources expose financial markets to stability risks since funding can dry up quickly."
The piece tells us, "One means of addressing this vulnerability is central clearing, a process by which a central counterparty (CCP) becomes the counterparty to the transaction for both the lender and the borrower, guaranteeing the trade. Central clearing can reduce counterparty risk and provide netting efficiencies but may reduce contracting flexibility and impose costs. Due to the inflexibility and expenses, central clearing has had historically limited participation."
A section titled, "Estimating the Central Clearing Rule's Impact on Repo Outstanding," says, "The potential role of central clearing in enhancing Treasury market resilience has gained greater attention in recent years. The SEC adopted a rule change in 2023 requiring certain U.S. Treasury-collateralized repo to be centrally cleared by 2027. While this will result in more central clearing, the scale of this increase has remained uncertain. With the OFR's new collection of repo data in 2024, a comprehensive and detailed assessment of which repos are mandated to be centrally cleared is now possible."
It continues, "Had the central clearing rule been in place during 2025, assuming no change in the underlying repos, the bulk of Treasury repo would have been centrally cleared as the rule intends. During the first eight months of 2025, 45% of average daily repo outstanding was already cleared. If the central clearing rule had been implemented, we estimate that 77% would have been cleared."
The OFR writes, "The two main types of repo that are exempt from the central clearing rule are those between affiliated entities that are legally distinct but associated with the same parent financial institution and those with embedded optionality (e.g., open and evergreen). Of the 23% of repo remaining non-centrally cleared, 79% would fall under the affiliated entities exemption. The remaining repos with embedded optionality may become eligible to clear as clearing services expand."
They state, "The Supplementary Leverage Ratio (SLR) can be a constraining regulatory metric for repo dealers because repo activity generally puts downward pressure on the SLR. However, regulatory accounting rules allow dealers to net certain repo positions against offsetting reverse repo positions provided they are with the same counterparty and end on the same date. Since the CCP becomes the counterparty in all centrally cleared repo transactions, dealers have the ability to net more of their positions. These netting efficiencies should improve the SLRs for the bank holding companies of dealers."
The blog explains, "Daily repo data show how dealers manage their balance sheet on days surrounding regulatory reporting days like quarter-ends. Figure 3 shows no pattern in non-netted positions over the quarterly cycle. This suggests that dealers manage their balance sheet uniformly rather than altering balance sheet composition near regulatory reporting dates to manage regulatory constraints, which is consistent with previous OFR research."
It concludes, "This analysis does not account for how market participants may adjust to the central clearing rule. For example, dealers might adjust contract terms to optimize netting efficiencies under central clearing. As the compliance date for the central clearing rule approaches, the OFR will continue monitoring how market participants are adjusting."
In other news, Calastone recently published, "2026 Outlook: Money Markets at an Inflection Point." They comment, "As we head into 2026, money market funds (MMFs) find themselves in a position few would have predicted just a few years ago. After more than a decade defined by near-zero or negative interest rates, MMFs have returned to the centre of institutional cash management -- and they have done so with remarkable resilience. Against a backdrop of easing interest rates, assets have continued to grow, innovation has accelerated, and the strategic importance of MMFs has arguably never been greater."
The article tells us, "This outlook explores the forces shaping money markets in 2026: the evolving rate environment, record asset levels, the rise of tokenised distribution, intensifying competition through portals, growing demands for real-time connectivity, structural challenges around transfer agency, and the emerging role of artificial intelligence. Taken together, these trends point to a market at an inflection point, moving from recovery to reinvention."
It says, "Historically, rate cuts would have been expected to trigger an exodus from money market funds. That simply has not happened this time. Instead, MMFs have defied precedent. Despite declining yields, institutional money market assets are sitting at or near all-time highs -- roughly $8 trillion globally -- making this the largest pool of institutional MMF assets ever recorded."
Calastone states, "If rates explain why money has stayed in MMFs, tokenisation helps explain why the market is still expanding. Over the past two years, tokenisation has moved rapidly from proof-of-concept to live commercial deployment, with money market funds emerging as one of the most natural and compelling use cases. Tokenised distribution -- where traditional MMFs are made available on blockchain rails -- is now reshaping how investors access, use and think about liquidity products."
Finally, they write, "As MMFs grow in importance, competition is intensifying and nowhere is this more evident than in distribution. The money market portal has become a critical control point in the value chain. In 2025 alone, the market saw a wave of new portal launches and upgrades, alongside renewed investment from both established players and new entrants. Banks, asset managers, fintechs and independent platforms are all vying to own the client interface."
Federated Hermes reported it Q4'25 earnings Thursday night and hosted its Q4'25 earnings call on Friday morning. In the press release, President & CEO J. Christopher Donahue, says, "Federated Hermes' record assets at year-end were again driven by money market asset increases, as our liquidity products provided attractive cash management resources and opportunities for risk-adjusted returns. We also continued to see investor interest in our growing range of investment solutions beyond mutual funds, including ETFs, CITs and SMAs, which provide additional opportunities for financial professionals to meet the needs of their customers. In the fourth quarter, SMA net sales were led by our MDT All Cap Core strategy, our MDT Mid Cap Growth equity strategy and our Core Plus fixed-income strategy." (Note: Please join us for our next event, Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 19-20 in Boston, Mass.!)
The release says, "Federated Hermes' money market assets were a record $682.6 billion at Dec. 31, 2025, up $52.3 billion or 8% from $630.3 billion at Dec. 31, 2024 and up $29.8 billion or 5% from $652.8 billion at Sept. 30, 2025. Money market mutual fund assets were a record $508.4 billion at Dec. 31, 2025, up $46.7 billion or 10% from $461.7 billion at Dec. 31, 2024 and up $15.7 billion or 3% from $492.7 billion at Sept. 30, 2025. Federated Hermes' money market separate account assets were a record $174.2 billion at Dec. 31, 2025, up $5.6 billion or 3% from $168.6 billion at Dec. 31, 2024 and up $14.1 billion or 9% from $160.1 billion at Sept. 30, 2025."
Donahue explains on the call, "We reached another record high at the end of 2025 for total money market assets, which increased by $30 billion to reach $683 billion. Money market fund assets increased by $16 billion or 3% in Q4 to reach a record high of $508 billion. Money market separate accounts increased by $14 billion in the fourth quarter, reflecting seasonal patterns. Market conditions remain favorable for cash as an asset class. In addition to the appeal of relative safety in periods of volatility, money market strategies present opportunities to earn attractive yields compared to alternatives such as bank deposits and direct investments in T-bills and commercial paper. Our estimate of money market fund market share, including sub-advised funds, was about 7% at the end of 2025, down from 7.1 at the end of Q3."
He continues, "Regarding digital asset efforts, we are advancing a series of strategic initiatives that bring together the strength of money market investment and operational expertise with efficiency and transparency of blockchain technology. Our partnership with Archax, the first FCA-regulated digital securities exchange to offer tokenized U.S. money market funds, marks its first major non-US digital asset initiative. The platform enables professional investors to hold beneficial ownership tokens across multiple blockchains and access money market liquidity directly on-chain. The Archax relationship complements our US digital efforts, where we are the sub-adviser for the Superstate Short Duration US Government Securities Fund, a private tokenized fund. We are also participating in the launch of a collaborative initiative between BNY and Goldman Sachs that will utilize mirrored tokenization of money market fund shares."
Donahue comments, "We have a robust pipeline of tokenization projects in the U.S. and abroad, including the development of efforts for a Genius Act compliant money market fund and ongoing integration discussions with several leading firms developing digital technology for fully on-chain trading and settlement of tokenized share classes. We believe these efforts position the firm well for the digital transition as we work collaboratively with service providers and stakeholders on developing new standards for combining liquidity, investor protections, and blockchain-enabled capabilities for modern financial markets. Looking now at recent asset totals as of a few days ago, managed assets were approximately $909 billion, including $684 billion in money markets, $101 billion in equities, $101 billion in fixed income, $19.5 billion in alternative private markets, $3 billion in multi-asset. Money market mutual fund assets were at $500 billion."
Asked about tokenization during the Q&A, Donahue answers, "So on the end demand from clients, it's not as robust as what you might expect from all the press, media, and in fact, all the work we're doing on it. It's getting ready for tomorrow, and we expect this will be the way things go down the road. But the end clients are perfectly sanguine about using the current products in the current way. And when you ask about milestones, you've got to get lots of money moving into these things, in addition to lots of work being done on how they're structured. Almost every week, there's another new structure and a new idea that is very intriguing. And this is what we're keeping our eyes on, and, basically, we're working on all of them."
He states, "A milestone would be when you start to see real money moving into them. There could also be some regulatory things, and that's really hard to predict because you don't know what structures you're going to obtain, and this is true both in the U.S. and globally.... When I was in Singapore and Hong Kong last year ..., both of those government entities, Singapore and Hong Kong, were most anxious to be the tokenized headquarters for trading money funds, and they were well down the road of organizing their government entities. But how much is in it and how much is how much money is actually flowing there is another question."
Money market CIO Debbie Cunningham responds, "So what we've identified in the US so far from a use case perspective is generally on a distribution basis, diversification, and on a use case basis for collateral purposes and for margining purposes. Both of which like the instantaneous settlement that is provided from a tokenized product.... So that's where the retail side of it comes in. You know, our product outlook has many additional use cases, many additional benefits that accrue to the end user. So we feel like this is just the tip of the iceberg, and that it will serve more purposes and more ultimate end user clients. It's just, as Chris said, a lot of ... work ... needs to be put into place to keep these ... high-quality products that we have in money market funds, liquid and ... serving the purpose of all the end users."
Given a question on the rate cycle, Cunningham replies, "Our outlook from ... a firm standpoint for 2026, is one rate cut by 25 basis points.... You're [still] looking [a] terminal rate that is north of 3%, with a positively sloped curve.... When you look at the low-risk products, the high quality, the instantaneous liquidity and settlement that you get, especially if you're looking at the tokenized product aspect of it, you find that it's still very compelling from a use case perspective by both institutions, whose general other comparison outside of the fund industry is direct market securities -- repo, treasury bills, commercial paper -- where the positively sloped yield curve should give the fund the advantage."
She adds, "And then on the retail side of the equation, if you've got a Fed cutting cycle or even a pause cycle, generally speaking, their other common type of product to use for liquidity purposes is bank deposits, and those are well below where a fund can generate.... So, you know, we saw a lot of retail growth driving the 2024 double-digit gains in the market from an AUM standpoint. The institutional side kicked in in 2025 to help generate those double-digit gains again. Maybe we only get single-digit gains from an AUM standpoint in 2026, but our expectation is it's still pretty positive from an environment standpoint."
Finally, when asked about the seasonality of money fund flows, Cunningham explains, "On a seasonal basis, generally, January is usually our worst month of the year from an inflow basis, and it's usually actually an outflow. First quarter, ... the corporate tax date in March and then individual tax date flowing into the second quarter in April, are generally big hits from a money fund AUM standpoint. Then the second half of the year is generally where the growth really picks up, with December generally ... being the highest quarter from ... year-end.... [It's] window dressing to some degree that is then reversed in January."
She adds, "What's interesting from a fund standpoint versus another type of product standpoint ... generally our separate accounts. Our state pools are in fact gathering money starting in the first quarter and going strong into the third quarter, ... and then they have large outflows that occur later in the third quarter and in the fourth quarter. So the two kind of nicely offset each other from our own AUM standpoint, which is a good thing. But from a strictly money market fund standpoint, it gets better as the year goes on."
