Money Market News
While we're still recovering for our European Money Fund Symposium, which took place in Paris 2 weeks ago, we're also ramping up preparations for our next Money Fund University conference, which will be in Greenwich, Conn., Dec. 17-18. Crane's Money Fund University is designed for those new to the money market fund industry or those in need of a concentrated refresher on the basics. The event also focuses on hot topics like money market fund regulations, money fund alternatives, offshore markets, and other recent industry trends. Our educational conference features a faculty of the money fund industry's top lawyers, strategists, and portfolio managers, and the Greenwich show will include our Holiday cocktail party Dec. 17 and a free product training session for Crane Data clients. We review the MFU agenda and some other upcoming conferences, below. (Note: Thanks again to those of you who supported Crane's European Money Fund Symposium, and mark your calendars for next year's show in London, Sept. 23-24, 2027!)
Crane Data hosted its latest European Money Fund Symposium conference in Paris late last month, where a record 250 money market professionals discussed rates, tokenization, record asset levels and a number of other hot topics in "offshore" cash. The opening session of day 2, "Tokenized Money Funds, Stablecoins & More," was moderated by our Peter Crane and featured Brenden Carroll of Dechert LLP, Andrew Paranthoiene of S&P Global Ratings and Rachel Thornton of Northern Trust. Paranthoiene says about tokenization, "This is sort of the question of the day.... The balloon of ESG is sort of fading away.... But one of the things that we are thinking about ... from a wider market perspective is the evolution, or the revolution, in regards to tokenized money market funds." (Note: Thanks again to those of you who supported our European Money Fund Symposium in Paris, and mark your calendars for next year's show in London, Sept. 23-24, 2027!)
The Investment Company Institute's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money fund assets plummeting $45.4 billion to $7.891 trillion. Assets rose $15.2 billion the previous week and decreased $52.0 billion the week before this. Assets saw a record high of $7.979 trillion four weeks ago. MMF assets are up by $526 billion, or 7.1%, over the past 52 weeks (through 9/30/26), with Institutional MMFs up $397 billion, or 9.0% and Retail MMFs up $109 billion, or 3.6%. Year-to-date in 2026, MMF assets are up by $158 billion, or 2.0%, with Institutional MMFs up $129 billion, or 2.8% and Retail MMFs up $29 billion, or 0.9%.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's "Liberty Street Economics" recently asked, "Who's Borrowing and Lending in Repo Markets?" The article states, "Repo markets play a vital role in the U.S. financial system. In this three-part series, we examine who participates in these markets, what trade-offs influence how different repo segments are structured, and why repos matter for monetary policy. Today's post introduces repo transactions, focusing on the major private-sector participants and why they engage in these markets." (Note: Thanks again to those of you who attended and supported our European Money Fund Symposium in Paris! Mark your calendars for next year's show in London, Sept. 23-24, 2027!)
ICI's latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing - August 2026" and "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" show money fund totals increasing $71.3 billion, or 0.9%, in August to $7.928 trillion. MMFs increased by $711.8 billion, or 9.9%, over the past 12 months (through 8/31/26). Money funds' August asset increase follows a decrease of $43.7 billion in July, an increase of $75.9 billion in June, $157.2 billion in May, a decrease of $100.5 billion in April and $16.9 billion in March, and an increase of $59.9 billion in February. Bond fund assets increased $35.0 billion to $5.717 trillion in August 2026. (Note: Thanks once more to those of you who attended our European Money Fund Symposium in Paris last week! Mark your calendars for next year's show in London, Sept. 23-24, 2027!)
Last week, The Wall Street Journal's "Heard on the Street" column featured a piece titled, "In the Age of AI, Cash Is Still King." Author Telis Demos writes, "When it comes to financial stocks these days, investors seem most concerned about their ability to attract, and hang on to, customers' cash. For many years, cash was trash, as the saying goes. Savings accounts, short-term Treasury bills and money-market funds paid little yield when interest rates were near zero. And when the Federal Reserve was growing its balance sheet, adding reserves into the banking system, banks looking to hoover up deposits at times just needed to hold out a bucket." (Note: Thanks again to those of you who attended our European Money Fund Symposium in Paris last week! Mark your calendars for next year's show in London, Sept. 23-24, 2027!)
EFAMA, The European Funds and Management Association, published a release titled, "Global investment fund flows show a moderate recovery in Q2 2026," as well as their quarterly, "Worldwide Regulated Open-end Fund Assets and Flows Trends in the Second Quarter of 2026." The former tells us, "EFAMA has published its latest International Quarterly Statistical Release for Q2 2026. (Note: For those of you who attended our European Money Fund Symposium in Paris last week, thank you! Mark your calendars for next year in London, Sept. 23-24, 2027!)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission published its latest monthly "Money Market Fund Statistics" summary, which shows that total money fund assets increased by $52.7 billion in August 2026 to $8.440 trillion, just below June's record $8.442 trillion and after falling to $8.387 trillion the month prior. The SEC shows Prime MMFs increased $1.5 billion in August to $1.372 trillion, Govt & Treasury funds increased $52.0 billion to $6.913 trillion and Tax Exempt funds decreased $0.8 billion to $154.7 billion. Taxable MMF yields were higher in August, while Tax Exempt MMF yields were lower. 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 $51.2 billion in August 2026 to $8.349 trillion. In September month-to-date through 9/23, total money fund assets have increased by $1.3 billion to $8.343 trillion, according to Crane Data's separate, and slightly smaller, MFI Daily series.) (Note: For those of you who attended our European Money Fund Symposium in Paris this week, thank you! We hope you had a great show, and safe travels home!)
J.P. Morgan writes in a recent "Short-Term Fixed Income," "Nothing to see here, move along." The piece tells us, "For the funding markets, [last] week's increase in the fed funds target range should keep taxable money fund AUMs well supported, particularly among more rate-sensitive investors (i.e. mainly retail investors). More broadly, we do not expect a sharp step-up in overall AUMs solely in response to Wednesday's Fed hike, or our baseline assumption of an additional hike in December. That said, the policy backdrop reinforces a modest upward bias for MMF balances. In other words, the additional hike itself is unlikely to drive meaningful incremental inflows, but should help maintain the yield support that has kept cash anchored in the complex." (Note: For those of you attending our European Money Fund Symposium this week, Sept. 24-25, welcome to Paris!)
The Investment Company Institute published, "Worldwide Regulated Open-Fund Assets and Flows, Second Quarter 2026," which shows that money fund assets globally rose by $250.0 billion, or 1.9%, in Q2'26 to a record $13.720 trillion. (The totals would have been $13.993 trillion if Australia and New Zealand had been included.) Increases were led by a sharp jump in money funds in the U.S. and China, while Ireland and Brazil also showed gains. Meanwhile, money funds in France and the Republic of Korea were lower. MMF assets worldwide increased by $1.406 trillion, or 11.4%, in the 12 months through 6/30/26, and money funds in the U.S. now represent 57.6% of worldwide assets. Asian money fund totals remained above European money fund totals, with Asia extending its lead slightly in Q2. We review the latest Worldwide MMF assets, below. (Note: For those of you attending our European Money Fund Symposium this week, Sept. 24-25, welcome to Paris!)
S&P Global Ratings published a "Request For Comment: Principal Stability Fund Rating Methodology," which states, "S&P Global Ratings is requesting comments on proposed revisions to its principal stability fund rating (PSFR) criteria. A PSFR is our forward-looking opinion about a fixed-income fund's ability to maintain a stable net asset value (NAV). This methodology applies to funds - including master feeder structures -- that aim for stable or accumulating NAVs. The proposed criteria will supersede 'Principal Stability Fund Rating Methodology.' The current criteria remain in effect until we finalize these proposed criteria."
The Federal Reserve Board's Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman gave a speech Friday in London titled, "Initial Findings from Independent Review of Silicon Valley Bank." She says, "Today I am announcing the initial findings of the independent review of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). In June 2023, I called for an independent review of SVB's failure to supplement the internal review. After I was confirmed as Vice Chair for Supervision, I engaged the Starling Advisory Group to conduct an independent review. Their report marks a pivotal moment not just in our understanding of what went wrong at SVB, but in our understanding of what went wrong within the Federal Reserve's supervisory process." (Note: We look forward to seeing those of you going to our European Money Fund Symposium in Paris later this week, Sept. 24-25! Safe travels and see you soon!)
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