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.)
