Money Market News
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."
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission published its latest monthly "Money Market Fund Statistics" summary, which shows that total money fund assets decreased by $50.7 billion in March 2026 to $8.290 trillion, after hitting a record high $8.341 trillion the month prior. The SEC shows Prime MMFs decreased $0.5 billion in March to $1.382 trillion, Govt & Treasury funds decreased $52.0 billion to $6.756 trillion and Tax Exempt funds increased $1.8 billion to $151.9 billion. Taxable yields were lower in March following declines in February. 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 decreasing $59.9 billion in March 2026 to $8.198 trillion. In April month-to-date through 4/21, total money fund assets have decreased by $104.3 billion to $8.088 trillion, according to Crane Data's separate, and slightly smaller, MFI Daily series.)
The Wall Street Journal's CFO Journal wrote a piece recently titled, "Companies Would Need to Disclose Stablecoin Holdings Under FASB Proposal." It tells us, "The Financial Accounting Standards Board wants to require companies to disclose significant stablecoin holdings as part of a broader move to have companies break out their different types of cash equivalents. The accounting standard-setter voted [last] Wednesday to propose that all companies must annually disclose the dollar amounts of the significant components of their cash equivalents. These components include investments with maturities of three months or less, like money-market funds, Treasury bills, commercial paper and possibly, stablecoins, for which there are no specific accounting rules at present. Equivalents are highly liquid, short-term but low-risk investments."
Money fund yields (7-day, annualized, simple, net) were up 1 bp at 3.47% on average during the week ended Friday, April 17 (as measured by our Crane 100 Money Fund Index), after decreasing 1 bp the week prior. Fund yields haven't been below 3.5% since November 2022, and they are down from a recent high of 5.20% in November 2023. They should remain flat in coming days (and weeks) since the Fed left short-term rates unchanged five weeks ago. Yields were 3.58% on 12/31/25, 3.78% on 11/30, 3.90% on 10/31, 3.94% on 9/30, 4.11% on 8/31, 4.12% on 7/31, 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.
J.P. Morgan Chase released its Q1 2026 Earnings early last week (see the earnings call transcript here," and one of the main discussions during the Q&A involved a new AI tool to allocate cash. Wolfe Research's Steven Chubak comments, "So maybe to start on the AI cash tool, which, Jamie, you commented on in your letter. There's been lots of focus on this particular ... launch given that this is a tool which could potentially result in some consumer deposit pressure as well as drive some impact on increased competition [and] higher deposit betas. I was hoping you could just speak to how you see deposit competition unfolding as similar smart tools become more widespread." (See our April 17 News, "Schwab Says AI a Tailwind, Not a Threat to Cash Sweeps on Q1 Update," and our April 16 Link of the Day, "Morgan Stanley Q1 Call: AI & Sweeps.")
Charles Schwab reported its Q1'26 earnings Thursday, and discussed cash sweeps and the potential impact of AI on revenues extensively during their Spring Business Update. CFO Michael Verdeschi comments, "Client cash followed typical seasonal trends to begin the year. However, as volatility increased during the back half of the quarter, clients took a slightly more defensive posture, which in conjunction with the cash build from organic growth and the long short strategies contributed to $25 billion of cash inflows during the month of March resulting in an $8 billion sequential quarter increase in client transactional sweep cash. For the second quarter, we still anticipate the typical drawdown in client cash due to tax payments in April. And similar to past years, we expect this activity to impact both transactional sweep cash as well as other liquid cash alternatives such as money market funds. Beyond seasonal considerations, continued market volatility could influence client cash allocations."
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