Money Market News
Crane Data's latest monthly Money Fund Market Share rankings show assets increasing again among most of the largest U.S. money fund complexes in February, after rising in January, December, November, October, September, August, July, June and May. Assets fell in March and April. Money market fund assets rose by $90.5 billion, or 1.3%, last month to a record $7.322 trillion. Total MMF assets have increased by $253.9 billion, or 3.6%, over the past 3 months, and they've increased by $850.2 billion, or 13.1%, over the past 12 months. The largest increases among the 25 largest managers last month were seen by Schwab, BlackRock, Fidelity, Vanguard and American Funds, which grew assets by $14.5 billion, $13.8B, $12.4B, $11.2B and $10.2B, respectively. Declines in February were seen by Dreyfus, Northern, HSBC and DWS, which decreased by $5.7 billion, $4.5B, $1.2B and $392M, 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 slightly lower in February.
The March issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Friday morning, features the articles: "MF Assets Break $7.3 Trillion After Pause; ICI Tops $7.0 Tril," which discusses the recent resurgence in MMF flows; "ICI: SEC's MMF Reforms Push $309 Billion from Prime Inst," which looks at a paper on last year's rule changes; and, "Stablecoin Battle Heats Up, as Tokenization Launces Spread" which reviews the latest news on stablecoins and tokenized MMFs. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Friday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 2/28/24 data. Our March Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Tuesday, March 12, and our March Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Monday, March 17.
With money market fund assets continuing to hit record levels (assets broke $7.3 trillion last week), our next Money Fund Symposium, seems destined to break well over our record of 585 attendees set in Pittsburgh last year. Money Fund Symposium 2025 is scheduled for June 23-25, 2025 at The Renaissance Boston Seaport, in Boston, Mass. The full agenda for the largest gathering of money market fund managers and cash investors in the world is available and registrations are being taken. Money Fund Symposium attracts money fund managers, marketers and servicers, cash investors, money market securities dealers, issuers, and regulators. We review our latest agenda, as well as Crane Data's other 2025 conferences, below. (Note: We look forward to seeing those of you attending our Bond Fund Symposium at the end of March in Newport Beach! Registrations are still being taken for the show, which is March 27-28. Attendees and Crane Data subscribers may access the conference binder, Powerpoints and recordings (after the show) in coming weeks via our "Bond Fund Symposium 2025 Download Center.")
EFAMA, the European Fund and Asset Management Association, published a press release titled, "2024 was a record year for ETFs and MMFs," which tells us, "In our latest Monthly Statistical Release, we show the main developments for the European investment fund market in December 2024 and include a first overview and analysis of the full year 2024." They quote Bernard Delbecque, Senior Director for Economics and Research at EFAMA, who comments, "Equity UCITS inflows rebounded in 2024, driven by strong stock market performance. Meanwhile, other UCITS categories followed similar trends to 2023: sustained demand for bond UCITS as interest rates declined, record-breaking net sales of both ETFs and MMFs, and continued net outflows from multi-asset UCITS." (Note: Please join us for our upcoming Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 27-28 in Newport Beach. We hope to see you later this month in Southern California!)
Money fund yields (7-day, annualized, simple, net) were unchanged at 4.16% on average during the week ended Friday, Feb. 28 (as measured by our Crane 100 Money Fund Index), after falling 1 bp the week prior and falling 1 bp two weeks prior. Fund yields have digested almost all of the Federal Reserve's 25 basis point cut from December 18, though they may inch down a basis point or 2 lower in coming days. They've declined by 90 bps since the Fed first cut its Fed funds target rate by 50 bps percent on Sept. 18, and they've declined by 47 bps since the Fed cut rates by 1/4 point on 11/7. Yields were 4.28% on average on 12/31/24, 4.45% on 11/30/24, 4.65% on 10/31, 4.75% on 9/30, 5.10% on 8/31, 5.13% on 7/31 and 6/28, 5.14% on 3/31 and 5.20% on 12/31/23. (Note: Register and make hotel reservations soon for Bond Fund Symposium, Crane Data's ultra-short bond fund conference, which will take place March 27-28 in Newport Beach.)
Federated Hermes filed its latest "10-K Annual Report" with the SEC Friday, and the 100-page document contains a wealth of information on money market mutual funds, including lengthy discussions on "Regulatory Matters". The report tells us, "Federated Hermes ... is a global leader in active, responsible investing with $757.6 billion in assets under management (AUM or managed assets) at Dec. 31, 2023.... Federated Hermes has been in the investment management business since 1955 and is one of the largest investment managers in the United States.... Federated Hermes provides investment advisory services to 176 Federated Hermes Funds as of Dec. 31, 2024.... Of the 176 Federated Hermes Funds, Federated Hermes' investment advisory subsidiaries managed as of December 31, 2024, 22 money market funds with $461.7 billion in AUM, 45 equity funds with $43.8 billion in AUM, 54 fixed-income funds with $45.6 billion in AUM, 50 alternative/private markets funds with $11.5 billion in AUM and five multi-asset funds with $2.8 billion in AUM. As of Dec. 31, 2024, Federated Hermes provided investment strategies to $264.3 billion in Separate Account assets. These Separate Accounts represent assets of government entities, high-net-worth individuals, pension and other employee benefit plans, corporations, trusts, foundations, endowments, sub-advised funds and other accounts or offerings owned or sponsored by third parties." (Note: Register and make hotel reservations soon for Bond Fund Symposium, Crane Data's ultra-short bond fund conference, which will take place March 27-28 in Newport Beach. We hope to see you next month in Calif.!)
ICI published its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report, as well as its monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" for January 2025 and its monthly "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" Thursday. The weekly series shows money fund assets rising $60.5 billion to a record $6.974 trillion, after falling $9.6 billion the week prior and rising $5.5 billion two weeks prior. Money fund assets have risen in 21 of the last 30, and 32 of the last 45 weeks, increasing by $670.7 billion (or 10.6%) since the Fed cut on 9/18/24 and increasing by $996.8 billion (or 16.7%) since 4/24/24. MMF assets are up by $916 billion, or 15.2%, in the past 52 weeks (through 2/26/25), with Institutional MMFs up $475 billion, or 13.0% and Retail MMFs up $441 billion, or 18.6%. Year-to-date, MMF assets are up by $124 billion, or 1.8%, with Institutional MMFs up $49 billion, or 1.2% and Retail MMFs up $75 billion, or 2.7%.
After treading water for much of January and February 2025, money market mutual fund assets have recently surged higher, hitting a record $7.297 trillion on Tuesday, just a few billion away from the $7.3 billion barrier. For February month-to-date through 2/25, total money fund assets have increased by $70.6 billion to $7.297 trillion, according to Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence Daily series. Our MFI XLS monthly shows money fund assets rising $51.1 billion in January 2025 to a record $7.234 trillion as of 1/31/25, while the SEC's latest monthly "Money Market Fund Statistics" summary shows that total money fund assets rose by $47.9 billion in January 2025 to a record $7.286 trillion.
Crane Data published its latest Weekly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics Tuesday, which track a shifting subset of our monthly Portfolio Holdings collection. The most recent cut (with data as of Feb. 21) includes Holdings information from 67 money funds (up 5 from a week ago), or $3.856 trillion (up from $3.585 trillion) of the $7.267 trillion in total money fund assets (or 53.1%) 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 Feb. 12 News, "Feb. Money Fund Portfolio Holdings: Treasuries Higher, Fed Repo Plunges.") (Note: Register soon for our upcoming Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 27-28 in Newport Beach. We hope to see you next month in Southern California!)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission published its latest monthly "Money Market Fund Statistics" summary, which shows that total money fund assets rose by $47.9 billion in January 2025 to a record $7.286 trillion. Assets jumped $113.2 billion in December, $197.8 billion in November, $93.3 billion in October and $166.6 billion in September 2024. The SEC shows Prime MMFs increased $27.4 billion in January to $1.218 trillion, Govt & Treasury funds increased $23.1 billion to $5.930 trillion and Tax Exempt funds decreased $2.6 billion to $138.4 billion. Taxable yields inched lower in January after plunging 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 rising $51.1 billion in January 2025 to a record $7.234 trillion. In February month-to-date through 2/21, total money fund assets have increased by $40.1 billion to $7.267 trillion, according to Crane Data's separate, and slightly smaller, MFI Daily series.)
Website RIABiz.com writes on BlackRock's new Money Market ETFs in "BlackRock rattles giant saber at Schwab and Fidelity by launching high-yield 'money market' funds that 'circumvent' shelf-space controls and pay big." They tell us, "BlackRock on Feb. 4, launched iShares Prime MMF (PMMF) and the iShares Government MMF (GMMF). The money market ETFs reported $104.2 million and $26 million in net assets, respectively, in just the first 17 days since launch." (See our Feb. 6 News, "BlackRock Money Market ETFs Go Live; Ondo Finance on Tokenized MMFs.") (Note: Register soon for our upcoming Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 27-28 in Newport Beach. We hope to see you next month in Southern California!)
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money fund assets falling $9.6 billion to $6.914 trillion, after rising $5.5 billion to a record $6.923 trillion the week prior and rising $44.9 billion two weeks prior. Money fund assets have risen in 20 of the last 29, and 31 of the last 44, weeks, increasing by $610.1 billion (or 9.7%) since the Fed cut on 9/18/24 and increasing by $936.2 billion (or 15.7%) since 4/24/24. MMF assets are up by $905 billion, or 15.1%, in the past 52 weeks (through 2/19/25), with Institutional MMFs up $475 billion, or 13.0% and Retail MMFs up $430 billion, or 18.2%. Year-to-date, MMF assets are up by $63 billion, or 0.9%, with Institutional MMFs up $2 billion, or 0.0% and Retail MMFs up $61 billion, or 2.2%. (Note: Register soon for our upcoming Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 27-28 in Newport Beach, Calif!)
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