Money Fund Intelligence XLS
Franklin Resources, manager of the Western Asset and Putnam funds, also released W2'25 earnings and hosted its latest earnings call last week. President & CEO Jenny Johnson comments, "Money market balances have continued to grow as the Federal Reserve holds the target overnight rate at about 4%. We've had cash management net inflows for 4 out of the 5 last quarters, with $2.7 billion in each of the last 2 quarters, increasing our cash management AUM to $72 billion.... This quarter, we launched an intraday yield feature on Benji, our tokenized money market fund, making investing faster more transparent and accessible 24/7. This is another example of how Franklin Templeton has always been at the forefront of change, whether it's providing investors with access to new investment opportunities improving how they manage their money or leveraging new technology to make it more efficient." During the Q&A, she says, "We think that it will fundamentally change the rails of the financial system. So why do we think that? Let me just use our tokenized money market fund as an example. So we launched this in 2021. We are still the only asset manager in the world who provides digitally native exposure on-chain as opposed to shadowing ... from your old system shadowing onto the blockchain. That gives us a lot of additional capability that enhances what we can do for clients with that single product." Johnson explains, "So we just launched intraday yield. If you hold our Benji money market fund, you will see what you earned that day, and it will be posted to your account that same day. if you use the Benji product as collateral and you only hold it for 4 hours and 32 minutes, you're going to get 4 hours and 32 minutes of yield. So it's really because blockchain is so efficient that it enables those enhanced services. When we say, and when the SEC approved that product, they had us run [a parallel process], and we're still running the transfer agency in-house.... And we were astonished even by the difference in cost to actually run transactions on chain versus on the old transfer agency system." Johnson adds, "So we've built an ecosystem in there. As I mentioned on the Benji platform, we actually got a patent on our wallet. Right now, you download it from the Apple Store, but we really have designed it because we think it could be white labeled by others. And right now, that wallet ... and the Benji app or the Benji token can operate actually across chain on 8 different blockchains. So as the traditional distributors start to think about how they have to deal with the crypto world and the tokenization world, they're going to look for partners. We think that will help them to navigate it, and we've built this infrastructure to do it. So that's how we're thinking about translate." Finally, she says, "Now today, we actually manage reserves for 4 stablecoin providers. Everybody is aware of Circle and USDC because it's the big elephant in the room. But there are actually other ones. We were just selected by the first state who is issuing their own stablecoin to manage that stablecoin. So today, there's been kind of a parallel world between the crypto world and the traditional finance world. Now as you get clarity around regulation like the Genius Act, you're starting to see firms be more comfortable being able to dip their toe into it. And that's where we think we can be a really important partner because, again, this -- the infrastructure that we've built, we've been building since, I think, 2018 is -- it's not going to be an easy one for people to catch up quickly. And so our ability to really private label that and have it integrated in others -- in their client platforms. Just imagine if you're a distributor, you've got your clients who are holding their crypto assets, some portion of them, probably the younger ones, are holding their assets over at Coinbase. Wouldn't you like to be able to move that over into a wallet that's integrated on your system so you can provide an entire view of the clients' investment opportunities, and that's the kind of infrastructure that we've built."
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Money Fund Intelligence XLS News
May 07
The May issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which will be 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 will also send 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!)
MFI's "Crane Data's 20th Birthday" story says, "Crane Data hits a milestone this month, celebrating our 20th birthday. While our first decade was dominated by the Great Financial Crisis, zero yield and the threat of regulatory extinction, the last 10 years have seen money fund assets triple. As we've done in some earlier May issues, we'd like to take a moment to review our progress and update you on our efforts."
It continues, "Our company, run by money fund expert Peter Crane and technology guru Shaun Cutts, was launched in May 2006 to bring faster, cheaper and cleaner information to the money fund space. We began by publishing our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, and we've grown to offer a full range of daily and monthly spreadsheets, news, database query systems and reports on U.S. and 'offshore' money funds."
We write in our "ICI 2026 Fact Book" article, "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 ... worldwide total net assets of equity funds ... 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.... 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."
It continues, "Discussing 'Worldwide' mutual funds (page 9), ICI writes, 'Worldwide net sales of money market funds declined somewhat in 2025 but still attracted $1.3 trillion in net inflows.... Investors across all geographical regions continued to demonstrate demand for money market funds, with the $901 billion in inflows in the United States accounting for more than two-thirds of total net inflows. Investor demand for money market funds in the Asia-Pacific Region and Europe was $217 billion and $169 billion in 2025, respectively.'"
Our "JP Morgan Talk of AI" story says, "J.P. Morgan Chase released its Q1 2026 Earnings last month (see the transcript here), and during the Q&A they were asked about a new 'AI cash tool,' 'which could potentially result in some consumer deposit pressure as well as drive some impact on increased competition [and] higher deposit betas.'"
The story continues, "JPM Chase CEO Jamie Dimon responds, 'Yes. It's a great question, and obviously, we're in the early stages for this particular product.... The question for us is, how can we make it easier for [clients] to manage their money in a way they're comfortable. Most [people] have money in a checking account and then write a ticket to a money market fund or a deposit account.... That's all we're trying to do.'"
MFI also includes the News brief, "MMFs Fall Again, Record Tax Drop." It says, "Crane Data's MFI XLS shows money fund assets falling $102.1 billion in April to $8.096 trillion, though assets have rebounded strongly month-to-date in May. The Investment Company Institute's latest weekly 'Money Market Fund Assets' report shows money fund assets falling by $11.0 billion to $7.626 trillion. MMFs fell $5.6 billion the previous week, and they fell by a massive $175.8 billion two weeks prior, the largest weekly drop ever, driven by huge April 15 tax-day outflows."
Another News brief, "FASB Proposes Disclosure of Cash, Stablecoin Holdings," tells us, "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 ... 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.'"
A third News brief, "Federated on Digital Treasury Fund," says, "Federated Hermes reported its First Quarter earnings and hosted its Q1'26 earnings call late last week. 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 ... our ultrashort funds.' On the earnings call, Donahue comments, 'Market conditions remain favorable for cash as an asset class <b:>`_. In addition to the appeal of relative safety in periods of volatility, money market strategies present opportunities to earn attractive yields compared to alternatives like bank deposits and direct investments in T-bills and CP.'"
A sidebar, "MSIM Stablecoin Reserves," says, "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 ... 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.'"
Our May MFI XLS, with April 30 data, shows total assets fell $102.1 billion to $8.096 trillion, after decreasing $56.6 billion in March, increasing $94.0 billion in February, $38.5 billion in January, $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 last May.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was unchanged at 3.37%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was down 1 bp at 3.47% in April. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 3.73% and 3.74%. Charged Expenses averaged 0.36% and 0.26% for the Crane MFA and the Crane 100. (We'll revise expenses once we upload the SEC's Form N-MFP data for 4/30/26 on Friday, 5/8.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 42 days (up 1 day) and the Crane 100 WAM was up 1 day from the previous month at 44 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)
Apr 08
The April issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Wednesday morning, features the articles: "JPM: Corporates Driving MMF Asset Gains; A Look at Fed Z.1," which reviews corporate cash balances and their impact on money fund growth; "Bond Fund Symposium in Boston: Ho & Schneider," which quotes from our recent ultra-short bond fund conference; and "Fidelity Reserves Digital, 5th Stablecoin Reserve Fund," which discusses the latest Stablecoin Reserves money market funds. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Wednesday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 3/31/26 data. Our April Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Friday, April 10, and our April Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Wednesday, April 15.
MFI's "Corporates" story says, "A recent 'Short-Term Fixed Income' from J.P. Morgan Securities' featured a section titled, 'Corporates maintain large liquidity portfolios, and even larger cash balances.' It states, 'As expected, corporations continue to maintain large liquidity portfolios. Based on balance sheet data for S&P 500 non-financial companies, we estimate liquidity portfolio balances as of 4Q25 registered $2.6tn, an increase of $119bn QoQ and $257bn YoY. At these levels, they surpass even the prior peak of $2.5tn in the months after Covid in 2020.'"
The story states, "The brief continues, 'Notably, cash and cash equivalents rose materially, even as investment securities drove most of the increase in liquidity portfolios. We estimate aggregate cash and cash equivalents rose by nearly $117bn last year, reaching $1.38tn by 4Q25.... This marks one of the larger annual increases in cash and cash equivalents, though still behind what we saw in 2020 and 2023. [A]s far as cash levels go, ... this will be the highest amount of cash and cash equivalents corporations have held in at least a decade.'"
We write in the "Bond Fund Symposium Boston," story, "We recently hosted our latest Crane's Bond Fund Symposium in Boston, which brings together ultra-short bond fund managers and securities issuers. The keynote talk, 'Ultra‐Short Bond Funds: Spring Break,' featured J.P. Morgan Securities' Teresa Ho and PIMCO's Jerome Schneider. The latter comments, 'First of all, thanks for being here. Once again, it's obviously a great forum to see friends. And it's important, not just because of where we are today, and we can talk about the factors of where the economy is going, and waking up every moment to see where rates are going, things like that. But ... what we do here is probably described as calm amongst a storm of uncertainty ... [within] the broader landscape.'"
It continues, "He tells us, 'So, my [role at] PIMCO is running short-term low duration strategies in addition to some of our portable alpha strategies.... From that vantage point, I think about the best way to optimize cash and ... shorter duration type of fixed income allocations.' (Note: Thanks again to those who supported Bond Fund Symposium! Attendees and Crane Data subscribers may access the conference binder, Powerpoints and recordings via our 'Bond Fund Symposium 2026 Download Center.')"
Our "Fidelity Reserves" article says, "Fidelity Investments is the 5th money fund manager to launch a Stablecoin Reserves money market fund, following BlackRock's Circle Treasury Reserves, and Stablecoin Reserves offerings from State Street, Goldman Sachs and BNY. A Registration Statement tells us, 'Fidelity Reserves Digital Fund seeks to obtain as high a level of current in come as is consistent with the preservation of capital and liquidity.' (See our March 30 News, 'Arca Capital Management Files for US Treasury Money Mkt Digital Fund,' which says, 'Arca Capital Management filed a Form N-1A registration statement for Arca U.S. Treasury Money Market Digital Fund.')"
It continues, "Fidelity Reserves Digital's Principal Investment Strategies include: 'Investing only in U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds with a remaining maturity of, or issued with a maturity of, 93 days or less, cash, and overnight repurchase agreements fully collateralized by U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds, and other registered government money market funds; Investing only in eligible reserve assets that payment stablecoin issuers are permitted to maintain under the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act ('GENIUS Act') and any regulations adopted thereunder; and, Investing in compliance with industry-standard regulatory requirements for money market funds for the quality, maturity, liquidity, and diversification of investments."
MFI also includes the News brief, "MMFs Hit Record $8.279 Tril., Then Dip in Late March. Money market mutual fund assets jumped to a record high of $8.279 trillion on 3/18, according to our Money Fund Intelligence Daily. But assets then fell. They declined by $56.6 billion in March to $8.201 trillion."
Another News brief, "Fed Holds Rates at 3.5-3.75%." It says, "The Federal Reserve's latest FOMC Statement says, 'The Committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 3.5 to 3.75%.' Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index inched lower to 3.48% in March."
A third News brief, "Reuters: War and Record MMF Assets," says, "Reuters writes 'Investors drive US money market fund assets to records as war-related risk fears multiply.' The piece says, 'As the Iran conflict intensifies, the spike in oil prices and rising inflation fears are spurring investors to ditch stocks as too risky and shun traditional safe havens such as gold in favor of money market funds. The result: assets in those ultra-short-term and ultra-safe Treasury funds are now hovering around $8 trillion, according to calculations from providers such as the Investment Company Institute, JPMorgan Chase and Crane Data.'"
A sidebar, "Donahue Talks Tokenized," says, "Federated Hermes' Chris Donahue spoke recently at the '2026 RBC Capital Markets Global Financial Institutions Conference,' and made a number of comments on tokenization. He says, 'The BNY, Goldman deal is where we have our regular fund. BNY makes a token. The token invests, in effect, money in the fund, so the money fund's the same as it was five minutes ago, and it participates in Goldman's platform. That's another whole deal. Archax is one we're doing in Europe.... We have the structures inside to actually tokenize a money fund.'"
Our April MFI XLS, with March 31 data, shows total assets fell $56.6 billion to $8.201 trillion, after increasing $94.0 billion in February, $38.5 billion in January, $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 last April.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was down 1 bp at 3.37%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was down 1 bp at 3.48% in March. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 3.74% and 3.74%. Charged Expenses averaged 0.36% and 0.26% for the Crane MFA and the Crane 100. (We'll revise expenses once we upload the SEC's Form N-MFP data for 3/31/26 on Thursday, 4/9.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 41 days (up 1 day) and the Crane 100 WAM was up 1 day from the previous month at 43 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)
Mar 06
The March issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Friday morning, features the articles: "More Tokenized MMFs But Stablecoin Growth Stalling," which discusses a new tokenized MMF entrant and stablecoin balances; "State Street Prime, ProShares Money Market ETFs Go Live," which reviews the latest launches of money market ETFs; and "Federated's Cunningham on Money Funds' New Normal," which looks at the continued strength in money fund assets. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Friday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 2/28/26 data. Our March Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Tuesday, March 10, and our March Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Friday, March 13. (Note: Register ASAP for our upcoming Bond Fund Symposium, Crane Data's ultra-short bond fund conference. BFS will take place in just 2 weeks -- March 19-20 in Boston!)
MFI's "Tokenized MMFs" story says, "While the buzz around tokenized money market funds continues to grow, stablecoin balances have begun declining for the first time ever. On the tokenized MMF side, a press release titled, 'Northern Trust Asset Management Enters Digital Assets Market with Launch of Tokenized Money Market Share Class' tells us, 'Northern Trust Asset Management ... launched a tokenized share class for its NIF Treasury Instruments Portfolio. Marking the firm's entry into the digital assets market, the tokenized share class represents a digital mirror record of the fund's institutional share class using blockchain technology.' It explains, 'This offering will initially be available to clients on BNY's market leading LiquidityDirect platform, which utilizes Goldman Sachs Digital Asset Platform.'"
The story continues, "Paula Kar, Northern Trust Asset Management's Chief Product Officer, comments, 'This launch reflects Northern Trust Asset Management's commitment to delivering secure, efficient, and innovative liquidity solutions for institutional investors. Tokenization delivers meaningful advantages, including improved settlement efficiency and enhanced visibility. Money market funds are on the leading edge of digital innovation, and we are excited to advance our product suite in this evolving space.'"
We write in the "Money Market ETFs," story, "A press release, 'State Street Investment Management Unveils New Actively Managed Prime Money Market ETF,' tells us, 'State Street Investment Management ... announced the launch of the State Street Prime Money Market ETF (MMK), an actively managed ETF designed to meet the cash management needs of investors seeking the convenience, transparency and trading flexibility of ETFs.'"
It quotes Anna Paglia, Chief Business Officer for State Street Investment Management, "For decades, State Street Investment Management has delivered cash solutions to many of the world's most sophisticated institutional investors. With the launch of MMK, that same expertise becomes accessible to all investors looking for ways to manage their cash with an emphasis on income, liquidity and flexibility.'"
Our third article says, "Federated Hermes' latest monthly insight asks, 'Has the floor been raised for the money markets?' Money Market CIO Deborah Cunningham writes, 'There are essentially two ways an extraordinary development can play out: reverting to the mean or creating a new status quo. In finance, the latter is rare, but we believe 2026 is shaping up to be just that for the money markets.'"
It continues, "She explains, 'Many would agree that the collective performance of stable value products since mid-2022 has indeed been extraordinary, riding on the back of Federal Reserve rate hikes, and rising to their highest level in decades. The high watermark for yields came the following year, with the target fed funds range reaching 5.25-5.50% and the Crane 100 Money Fund Index touching 5.20%. Funds poured into money market funds, pushing assets under management (AUM) to record highs.'"
MFI also includes the News brief, "Bloomberg on Record MMF Assets." It says, "They write, 'Money Fund Assets Rise to Record $8.27 Trillion in Dash for Cash.' The piece explains, 'Investors are rushing into US money-market funds, lifting total assets to a record $8.271 trillion, as the war in Iran fuels a broad flight to safety. Some $49 billion flowed into money-market funds in the week ending March 3, according to the latest figures from Crane Data.'"
Another News brief, "Reuters: 'Wall Street Regulator Allows Intraday Trading of Tokenized WisdomTree Money Market Fund.' They comment, 'The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ... said it had granted a special request from the asset manager WisdomTree to allow intraday trading in tokenized shares of a money market fund, adding that this could speed settlement times and ease access for retail investors.'"
A third News brief, "SSIM's latest 'Monthly Cash Review' is titled, 'A Hawk at the Door.' The piece states, 'From a markets perspective, January, as usual, 'came in hot.' Flows were positive and the maturity schedule is heavy, pushing technicals tighter. Spreads have rallied across fixed and float, with fixed looking a bit too proud of itself at 3-4 bps tighter. There's not much value in extending out the curve unless you enjoy chasing things that don't want to be caught. Most investors are holding back, waiting for February to offer better levels, while fund durations naturally roll down as everyone resists the urge to buy at today's highs.... There's still plenty of cash sloshing around. It's a seller's market, plain and simple.'"
A sidebar, "iShares Short Bond ETFs," says, "ETF Trends writes that 'iShares Moves Short-Term Bond ETFs to the Big Board.' The article comments, 'As the hunt for yield and stability remains a cornerstone of portfolios in 2026, a group of iShares short-term bond ETFs have made a strategic move to the Big Board.... Four prominent short-term fixed-income vehicles have officially transitioned their primary listing to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The move involves the $75 billion iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV), the $20 billion iShares 0-1 Year Treasury Bond ETF (SHV), the $470 million iShares Prime Money Market ETF (PMMF), and the $95 million iShares Government Money Market ETF (GMMF).'"
Our March MFI XLS, with February 28 data, shows total assets rose $94.0 billion to a record high $8.249 trillion, after increasing $38.5 billion in January, $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 last March.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was down 1 bp at 3.39%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was unchanged at 3.50% in February. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 3.76% and 3.76%. 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 2/28/26 on Monday, 3/9.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 40 days (up 1 day) and the Crane 100 WAM was unchanged from the previous month at 42 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)
Feb 06
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.)