Money Market News
A press release titled, "Franklin Templeton and Binance Advance Strategic Collaboration with Institutional Off-Exchange Collateral Program," tells us, "Franklin Templeton, a global investment leader and Binance, the world's leading cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and users, ... announced a new institutional off-exchange collateral program, making digital markets more secure and capital-efficient. Now live, eligible clients can use tokenized money market fund shares issued through Franklin Templeton's Benji Technology Platform as off-exchange collateral when trading on Binance." (Note: Please join us for our upcoming Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 19-20 in Boston. We hope to see you next month in Boston!)
Crane Data's February Money Fund Portfolio Holdings, with data as of Jan. 31, 2026, show that holdings of Treasuries and Repo both decreased. Money market securities held by Taxable U.S. money funds (tracked by Crane Data) decreased by $54.6 billion to $8.065 trillion in January, after increasing $231.8 billion in December, $134.3 billion in November, $158.4 billion in October, $56.1 billion in September, $166.6 billion in August, $17.6 billion in July, $84.0 billion in June and $72.0 billion in May. They decreased by $73.8 billion in April. Assets rose by $45.6 billion in March and $53.7 billion in February. Treasuries, the largest portfolio composition segment, decreased by $135.2 billion. Repo, the second largest segment, decreased $33.5 billion in January. Agencies were the third largest segment, and CP remained fourth, ahead of CDs, Other/Time Deposits and VRDNs. Below, we review our Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics. (Visit our Content center to download, or contact us to request our latest Portfolio Holdings reports.)
Crane Data's latest monthly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics will be sent out Tuesday, and we'll be writing our regular monthly update on the new January data for Wednesday's News. But we also already uploaded a separate and broader Portfolio Holdings data set based on the SEC's Form N-MFP filings on Monday. (We continue to merge the two series, and the N-MFP version is now available via our Portfolio Holdings file listings to Money Fund Wisdom subscribers.) Our new N-MFP summary, with data as of January 31, includes holdings information from 982 money funds (down 5 from last month), representing assets of $8.192 trillion (down from $8.298 trillion a month ago). Prime MMFs rose to $1.258 trillion (up from $1.229 trillion), or 15.4% of the total. We review the new N-MFP data and we also look at our revised MMF expense data, which shows charged expenses were mostly flat and money fund revenues rose to $21.7 billion (annualized) in January. (Note: Please join us for our upcoming Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 19-20 in Boston. We hope to see you later next month!)
Crane Data's latest monthly Money Fund Market Share rankings show assets mixed among the largest U.S. money fund complexes in January, after jumping in November and December. Assets have increased in 18 of the past 19 months (only April 2025 saw declines). Money market fund assets rose by $38.5 billion, or 0.5%, last month to a record $8.156 trillion. Total MMF assets have increased by $300.6 billion, or 3.8%, over the past 3 months, and they've increased by $923.6 billion, or 12.8%, over the past 12 months. The largest increases among the 25 largest managers last month were seen by Vanguard, American Funds, JPMorgan, Invesco and Morgan Stanley, which grew assets by $20.1 billion, $17.3B, $16.5B, $10.3B and $9.1B, respectively. Declines in January were seen by BlackRock, Fidelity, Federated Hermes, Goldman Sachs and DWS, which decreased by $19.1 billion, $17.4B, $5.5B, $5.1B and $3.6B, 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 lower in January.
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.
Crane Data is ramping up preparations for our ninth annual ultra-short bond fund event, Bond Fund Symposium, which will take place March 19-20, 2026 at the Hyatt Regency in Boston, Mass. Crane's Bond Fund Symposium offers a concentrated and affordable educational experience, as well as an excellent networking venue, for bond fund and fixed-income professionals, and enhanced cash investors. Registrations are now being accepted ($1,000) and speaking and sponsorship opportunities are still available. We review the latest agenda and details below, and we also give an update on our upcoming big show, Money Fund Symposium, which will be held this June in Jersey City, NJ, June 24-26. (Note: Crane Data will also be celebrating its 20th Birthday at the BFS Cocktail Party, March 19, from 5-7pm, and Boston locals are welcome to stop by and check out the conference and party!)
A court decision from the U.S. District Court of Minnesota tells us, "Defendants U.S. Bancorp and U.S. Bancorp Investments, Inc., provide a bank-deposit (or 'cash-sweep') program for investment-account customers. Under the program, uninvested cash balances in participating customers' accounts are periodically transferred (or swept) into interest-bearing deposit accounts, and customers are paid interest. Plaintiffs Adam Saul Futo and James Bartley Ellis are two investment-account customers who participated in Defendants' cash-sweep program. In this would-be class action, Mr. Futo and Mr. Ellis allege that Defendants paid them and all other participating customers unreasonably low, below-market interest rates. Plaintiffs invoke subject-matter jurisdiction under CAFA and assert several claims arising under state law." (Note: Register soon for our upcoming Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 19-20 in Boston. We hope to see you later next month!)
The Office of Financial Research (OFR) posted a blog that asks, "How Will Central Clearing Impact the Repo Market?" It states, "The U.S. repurchase agreement (repo) market serves as a core channel for liquidity in the U.S. Treasury market. As of August 2025, over $8 trillion in U.S. Treasury-collateralized repo was outstanding, much of which is renegotiated daily. Short-term repos provide market participants with low-cost funding sources that support the smooth functioning of broader financial markets. However, these sources expose financial markets to stability risks since funding can dry up quickly."
Federated Hermes reported it Q4'25 earnings Thursday night and hosted its Q4'25 earnings call on Friday morning. 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 investor interest in our growing range of investment solutions beyond mutual funds, including ETFs, CITs and SMAs, which provide additional opportunities for financial professionals to meet the needs of their customers. In the fourth quarter, SMA net sales were led by our MDT All Cap Core strategy, our MDT Mid Cap Growth equity strategy and our Core Plus fixed-income strategy." (Note: Please join us for our next event, Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 19-20 in Boston, Mass.!)
The Investment Company Institute's published its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" and its monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing - December 2025" and "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" on Thursday. The former report shows money fund assets rebounding by $13.0 billion to $7.712 trillion, after decreasing by $30.8 billion the previous week. Three weeks prior assets were a record $7.804 trillion. Assets have risen in 15 of the last 19 weeks and 23 of the past 28 weeks. MMF assets are up by $839 billion, or 12.2%, over the past 52 weeks (through 1/28/26), with Institutional MMFs up $530 billion, or 12.9% and Retail MMFs up $309 billion, or 11.2%. Year-to-date in 2026, MMF assets are down by $22 billion, or -0.3%, with Institutional MMFs down $10 billion, or -0.2% and Retail MMFs down $12 billion, or -0.4%.
Fidelity announced the launch of a new stablecoin and says it will also manage the stablecoin's reserves. Their press release titled, "Fidelity Investments to Expand Digital Asset Investment Lineup with Stablecoin Launch: Fidelity Digital Dollar (FIDD)," tells us, "Fidelity Investments is set to launch its first stablecoin, Fidelity Digital Dollar (FIDD), which will be issued by Fidelity Digital Assets, National Association, and available for retail and institutional investors in the coming weeks." (Note: Please join us for our upcoming Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 19-20 in Boston, Mass! To register and for more information, visit www.cranesbfsymposium.com. Ask us about speaking or getting 2-for-1 or "comp" ticket!)
The SEC published its latest quarterly "Private Funds Statistics" report recently, which summarizes Form PF reporting and includes some data on "Liquidity Funds," or pools which are similar to but not money market funds. The publication shows overall Liquidity fund assets were higher in the latest reported quarter (Q2'25) at $389 billion (up from $374 billion in Q1'25 and up from $343 billion in Q2'24). We also again briefly review the SEC's "Amendments to Form PF Reporting Requirements for Large Liquidity Fund Advisers" which went into effect a year and a half ago, below. (Note: We're still looking for sponsors and speakers for our upcoming Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 19-20 in Boston, Mass.)
Archives »