Money Market News
Crane Data's latest monthly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics will be sent out Monday, and we'll be writing our regular monthly update on the new April data for Tuesday'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 Friday. (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 April 30, includes holdings information from 993 money funds (down 4 from last month), representing assets of $8.131 trillion (up from $8.127 trillion a month ago). Prime MMFs fell to $1.227 trillion (down from $1.251 trillion), or 15.1% 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 fell to $21.3 billion (annualized) in April.
Crane Data's latest monthly Money Fund Market Share rankings show assets down among the largest U.S. money fund complexes in April, after also declining in March. Assets have increased in 19 of the past 22 months (April 2025, March 2026 and April 2026 saw declines). Money market fund assets fell by $102.1 billion, or -1.2%, last month to $8.096 trillion. Total MMF assets decreased by $53.9 billion, or -0.7%, over the past 3 months, and they've increased by $778.7 billion, or 10.6%, over the past 12 months. The largest increases among the 25 largest managers last month were seen by BNY Dreyfus, DWS, Morgan Stanley, Vanguard and T Rowe Price, which grew assets by $10.7 billion, $6.0B, $5.4B, $3.9B and $1.1B, respectively. Declines in April were seen by Fidelity, JPMorgan, Schwab, First American and Goldman Sachs, which decreased by $24.6 billion, $21.9B, $14.0B, $11.4B and $10.7B, 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 April.
The May issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Thursday morning, features the articles: "Crane Data Celebrates 20th BDay; A Tale of Two Decades," which reviews MFI's two decades of covering the money fund business; "ICI 2026 Fact Book Shows Money Fund Trends in '25," which excerpts from the Investment Company Institute's latest annual statistical compilation; and "JP Morgan Talk of AI Cash Tool Hot Topic on Q1 Calls," which discusses recent earnings call discussions on competition to cash sweeps. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Thursday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 4/30/26 data. Our May Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Monday, May 11, and our May Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Thursday, May 14. (Note: Register ASAP for our upcoming Money Fund Symposium, which will take place next month -- June 24-26 in Jersey City, NJ!)
A press release titled, "State Street Investment Management and Galaxy Digital Bring Cash Management Onchain," tells us, "State Street Investment Management and Galaxy Asset Management, an affiliate of Galaxy Digital Inc. (GLXY) ... announced the launch of the State Street Galaxy Onchain Liquidity Sweep Fund (SWEEP), a tokenized private liquidity fund designed to enable 24/7 onchain cash management via stablecoin, subject to availability of stablecoin in the fund's portfolio. The launch represents a milestone in State Street's digital strategy to offer investment solutions onchain and support 24/7 programmatic trading and liquidity for cash management. Building on its legacy as an innovator, State Street continues to invest in foundational digital asset capabilities across investment management and custody, offering cutting-edge, onchain investment solutions to DeFi-native clients, as well as acting as the bridge to traditional institutional clients looking to move onchain."
As we wrote last Tuesday, the Investment Company Institute recently published its "2026 Investment Company Fact Book," an annual compilation of statistics and commentary on the mutual fund industry. We reviewed much of the money fund content in our April 28 News, "ICI Publishes 2026 Fact Book, Reviews US, Worldwide Money Funds in '25." But below we focus on the numerous "Data Tables" involving "Money Market Mutual Funds." ICI lists annual statistics on shareholder accounts, the number of funds, net assets, net new cash flows, paid and reinvested dividends, composition of prime and government funds, and net assets of institutional investors by type of institution. (Note: Register soon for our Money Fund Symposium show, which will be held June 24-26, 2026 in Jersey City, NJ!)
Federated Hermes reported its First Quarter earnings late Thursday and hosted its Q1'26 earnings call on Friday. CEO Chris Donahue says in the press release, "Investors with interest in capital preservation and liquidity continued to rely on our money market offerings and -- for those interested in moving further out the yield curve in the pursuit of higher yields than money market products -- our ultrashort funds." The release tells us, "Money market assets were a record $684.7 billion at March 31, 2026, up $47.6 billion or 7% from $637.1 billion at March 31, 2025 and up $2.1 billion from $682.6 billion at Dec. 31, 2025. Money market fund assets were $502.8 billion at March 31, 2026, up $37.9 billion or 8% from $464.9 billion at March 31, 2025 and down $5.6 billion or 1% from $508.4 billion at Dec. 31, 2025."
Franklin Templeton (BEN) released its latest earnings earlier this week, and the earnings call briefly mentioned tokenized money funds. During the Q&A, Brian Bedell from Deutsche Bank asks, "Actually, one on Franklin Crypto. Jenny, if you could just talk a little bit about ... what market are you targeting for that and the different product types as you evolve your Franklin digital assets? And then also on the tokenization of money funds and BENJI [Franklin OnChain US Govt Money Fund, FOBXX]. [What is] your view as to what extent we'll see the development of tokenized money funds accelerate given obviously, the use cases and the yield cases, especially within the digital asset platforms?"
The Investment Company Institute published its monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing - March 2026" and "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" on Wednesday. The latest "Trends" shows money fund totals decreasing $16.9 billion, or -0.2%, in March to $7.772 trillion. MMFs increased by $797.2 billion, or 11.4%, over the past 12 months (through 3/31/26). Money funds' March asset decrease follows an increase of $59.9 billion in February, a decrease of $17.3 billion in January, an increase of $170.2 billion in December, $107.7 billion in November, $146.8 billion in October, $104.5 billion in September, $123.4 billion in August, $69.0 billion in July, $29.3 billion in June and $84.7 billion in May. Assets decreased $63.8 billion in April and $10.9 billion last March. Bond fund assets decreased $109.7 billion to $5.574 trillion, and bond ETF assets increased $5.8 billion to $2.399 trillion in March 2026.
Ameriprise Financial (AMP) released its Q1'26 Earnings late last week (see call transcript here, where CEO Jim Cracchiolo comments, "Our cash business remained stable with nearly $30 billion in sweep balances. As you saw, our advisers again generated meaningful productivity and revenue growth with productivity increasing another 10% in the quarter to a record $1.2 million per adviser. Our strategy remains grounded in organic growth, built, not bought. Advisers consistently value Ameriprise for the depth of our value proposition and the strength of our partnership."
The Investment Company Institute released its "2026 Investment Company Fact Book," an annual compilation of statistics and commentary on the mutual fund space. Subtitled, "A Review of Trends and Activities in the Investment Company Industry," the latest edition tells us, " With stock markets rising around the globe in 2025 (17% in the United States, 36% in Europe, and 29% in the Asia-Pacific region) worldwide total net assets of equity funds, which invest primarily in publicly traded stocks, increased by 19% to $42.6 trillion at year-end 2025. Bond funds -- which invest primarily in fixed-income securities -- saw their total net assets increase 21% over the same period, somewhat reflecting total returns (capital gains and interest income) in bond markets. In 2025, the total return on bonds was 7% in the United States, 1% in Europe, and 1% in the Asia-Pacific region. Net assets of money market funds, which are regulated funds restricted to holding short-term, high-quality debt instruments, rose by 15%." We excerpt from the latest "Fact Book" below.
A press release titled, "Morgan Stanley Investment Management Launches Stablecoin Reserves Portfolio," tells us, "Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) ... announced the launch of the Stablecoin Reserves Portfolio (MSNXX), part of the Morgan Stanley Institutional Liquidity Funds trust. The Stablecoin Reserves Portfolio is a new government money market fund designed to align with the stablecoin reserves investment requirements of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act). The Fund offers payment stablecoin issuers an eligible money market fund option where they can invest their required reserves that back their outstanding payment stablecoins." (See Crane Data's March 23 News, "Fidelity Files for Reserves Digital Fund, 5th Stablecoin Reserve MMF.")
Brokerage Raymond James reported its latest quarterly earnings yesterday (see the Seeking Alpha transcript here), and the topic of AI and cash sweep accounts was again a big topic. CFO Jonathan Oorlog comments, "Clients' domestic cash sweep and enhanced savings program balances ended the quarter at $57.8 billion, down 1% compared to the preceding quarter and representing 3.7% of domestic ... client assets. Based on April activity to date, domestic cash sweep and enhanced savings program balances have declined due to the collection of record quarterly fee billings of approximately $1.9 billion along with further declines largely driven by the seasonal impact of client tax activity. Combined net interest income and RJBDP fees from third-party banks declined 3% from the prior quarter to $650 million.... The average yield on RJBDP balances with third-party banks decreased 6 basis points to 2.7%, primarily due to the full quarter impact of the Fed interest rate cuts in the December quarter."
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