The Investment Company Institute's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money fund assets plummeting $45.4 billion to $7.891 trillion. Assets rose $15.2 billion the previous week and decreased $52.0 billion the week before this. Assets saw a record high of $7.979 trillion four weeks ago. MMF assets are up by $526 billion, or 7.1%, over the past 52 weeks (through 9/30/26), with Institutional MMFs up $397 billion, or 9.0% and Retail MMFs up $109 billion, or 3.6%. Year-to-date in 2026, MMF assets are up by $158 billion, or 2.0%, with Institutional MMFs up $129 billion, or 2.8% and Retail MMFs up $29 billion, or 0.9%.
ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $45.45 billion to $7.89 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, September 30, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $31.57 billion and prime funds decreased by $15.76 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $1.88 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs decreasing $39.0 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $6.5 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $6.500 trillion (82.3% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.236 trillion (15.7%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $156.0 billion (2.0%).
It explains, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $6.47 billion to $3.11 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $4.63 billion to $1.98 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $3.70 billion to $985.73 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.86 billion to $141.56 billion." Retail assets account for 39.4% of the total, and Government Retail assets make up 63.7% of all Retail MMFs.
They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $38.98 billion to $4.78 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $26.94 billion to $4.52 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $12.05 billion to $249.94 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $20 million to $14.40 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 60.6% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 94.5% of all institutional MMF totals.
According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have decreased by $48.0 billion to $8.294 trillion month-to-date in September (as of 9/30), assets reached an all-time high of $8.404 trillion on July 6. Assets increased $52.8 billion in August, decreased $61.4 billion in July, increased $58.6 billion in June, $208.6 billion in May, decreased by $108.8 billion in April, $49.3 billion in March, increased $99.5 billion in February, $32.9 billion in January, $126.3 billion in December, $132.8 billion in November, $142.1 billion in October and $105.2 billion last September. 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.
In other news, our Crane 100 Money Fund Index, a simple average of the 100 largest taxable money market mutual funds' 7-day simple, net annualized yields, is getting some notice as it climbs in reaction to the Fed's recent interest rate hike. The Wall Street Journal writes in "A Simple Way to Take Advantage of Higher Yields," "Nobody likes to catch falling knives, as the old Wall Street saying goes. Except that with shorter-term bonds, at least you're wearing some protective gear."
The piece says, "Currently, 2-year Treasurys are yielding over 4.9%. That isn't much less than what the 10-year Treasury is paying at over 5.2%. Longer-term bonds have some additional yield built in for less quantifiable risks like long-term inflation or a surge in future issuance. Whether that is sufficient compensation can be very tough to think through. But investors don't have to be macro analysts. Either way, the relatively high yield on two-year notes and their shorter lifespan mean that it would take something quite extreme to generate overall losses for investors."
It adds, "Some investors might be willing to bet on the direction of rates. Others may want to let the market set their rate with a short-term instrument like a money-market fund. The Crane 100 Money Fund index is at a roughly 3.7% yield."
Federated Hermes' Debbie Cunningham also mentions our benchmark in "`Don't fight the FRED." She asks, "What comes next? For cash managers and investors in the money markets, it's time to break out new bottles of champagne. Inflation is no joy. But the yields the industry is seeing, and forecasts, for liquidity offerings continue to be attractive. The Crane Data 100 Money Fund Index has hit 3.67% and is likely to climb. The Fed does not need to hike to keep the good times going -- just hold rates higher for longer."
Finally, a filing on the JPMorgan OnChain Liquidity-Token Money Market Fund," says, "Effective immediately, tokens of the Fund will be available on the Solana blockchain, a public blockchain network," while a press release titled, "Maybank Asset Management brings Tokenised Singapore Dollar Money Market Fund into Synthesys Network."
The latter tells us, "Maybank Asset Management Singapore ('MAMS') ... announced that its tokenised share class of Maybank Money Market Fund, is now accessible through Synthesys Network, developed by Synthesys, a Singapore-headquartered tokenisation infrastructure provider, extending the fund's reach to regulated distribution channels globally.
