Money Market News
Crane Data hosted its 14th annual Money Fund Symposium conference in Minneapolis last week, which brought together over 420 money fund and cash investment professionals to discuss the latest involving rising rates, pending money fund reforms, and ESG/D&I money fund issues. As we do every year, we ended our opening day with the session, "Major Money Fund Issues 2022." Crane Data's Peter Crane moderated a discussion with Federated Hermes' Deborah Cunningham, Dreyfus' John Tobin and Northern Trust AM's Peter Yi, and D&I money fund issues took center stage (the show started on the Juneteenth Holiday, 6/20). We excerpt from their comments below. (Note: Thanks again to those who attended and supported Money Fund Symposium! The recordings and Powerpoints are available in our "Money Fund Symposium 2022 Download Center" to attendees and subscribers. Watch for more coverage in coming days and in our MFI newsletter, and mark your calendars for next year's MFS, which is June 21-23, 2023, in Atlanta.)
Staff from the SEC's Division of Investment Management published a brief paper entitled, "Prime MMFs' Asset Composition and Asset Sales," which shows that Prime money market funds have increased their liquidity and exposure to government securities substantially over the past two years. Authors Viktoria Baklanova, Isaac Kuznits and Trevor Tatum summarize, "This study analyzes portfolio holdings data filed by prime money market funds (MMFs) on Form N-MFP to gain insights about these funds' portfolio composition in March 2020 through the present. The analysis also includes data filed on Form N-CR, which is used for current reporting of MMFs' material events such as sales of securities to affiliated firms, and data about the Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility (MMLF). The analysis shows that since March 2020 prime MMFs increased their holdings of government securities and repurchase agreements (repos) overall. Allocations to credit-related securities issued by banks and other types of firms may differ substantially among prime MMF categories." (Note: Thanks once again to those who attended our Money Fund Symposium in Minneapolis! Conference materials and recordings are now available in our "Money Fund Symposium 2022 Download Center." Also, mark your calendars for next year's Money Fund Symposium, which is June 21-23, 2023, in Atlanta. See you next year!)
The Investment Company Institute published, "Worldwide Regulated Open-Fund Assets and Flows, First Quarter 2022," which shows that money fund assets globally fell by $198.0 billion, or -2.2%, in Q1'22 to $8.635 trillion. The decreases were led by drops in money funds in the U.S., France and Luxembourg. Meanwhile, money funds in China and Brazil increased. MMF assets worldwide increased by $156.4 billion, or 1.8%, in the 12 months through 3/31/22, and money funds in the U.S. represent 53.2% of worldwide assets. We review the latest Worldwide MMF totals, below. (Note: Thanks again to those who attended our Money Fund Symposium this week in Minneapolis! Conference materials are available in our "Money Fund Symposium 2022 Download Center," and recordings will be posted shortly.)
We wrote last week about the Association for Financial Professionals' "2022 AFP Liquidity Survey. (See AFP's press release; our June 17 News, "AFP's 2022 Liquidity Shows Deposits, MMFs, T-Bills Still Kings of Cash;" and our June 15 Link of the Day, "AFP Releases Liquidity Survey.") Today, we quote from the section on Money Market Funds. (Note: Thank you to those who attended our Money Fund Symposium this week in Minneapolis! Conference materials are available in our "Money Fund Symposium 2022 Download Center," and recordings will be posted in coming days.)
The Securities and Exchange Commission's latest monthly "Money Market Fund Statistics" summary shows that total money fund assets decreased by $19.7 billion in May to $5.018 trillion, after decreasing in April, increasing in March and declining sharply in Feb. The SEC shows that Prime MMFs increased by $9.4 billion in May to $851.5 billion, Govt & Treasury funds decreased $36.7 billion to $4.058 trillion and Tax Exempt funds increased $7.6 billion to $107.8 billion. Taxable yields jumped again in May. 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. (Note: For those attending our Money Fund Symposium, June 20-22, welcome to Minneapolis! Conference materials are available via our "Money Fund Symposium 2022 Download Center.")
The Association For Financial Professionals, a group representing corporate treasurers, published its "2022 AFP Liquidity Survey earlier this week. (See AFP's press release and our June 15 Link of the Day, "AFP Releases Liquidity Survey.") The cover letter to the report says, "Invesco is proud to once again partner with AFP to sponsor the 2022 AFP Liquidity Survey, the 17th annual exploration of current and emerging corporate cash management trends. This marks the third year Invesco has underwritten this informative research, and what a remarkable period it has been in liquidity markets, from the early pandemic days in 2020 to the sharp inflation acceleration and aggressive shift to Federal Reserve monetary policy tightening in 2022." (Note: For those attending our Money Fund Symposium next week, June 20-22, in Minneapolis, conference materials are being posted to our "Money Fund Symposium 2022 Download Center." See you all in Minnesota on Juneteenth!)
The Federal Reserve Board hiked short-term interest rates by 75 basis points, its biggest hike in decades, to a range of 1.50-2.00%. The FOMC statement tells us, "Overall economic activity appears to have picked up after edging down in the first quarter. Job gains have been robust in recent months, and the unemployment rate has remained low. Inflation remains elevated, reflecting supply and demand imbalances related to the pandemic, higher energy prices, and broader price pressures." Money market fund yields should jump in coming days as the new higher rate levels are passed through to funds. Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index, currently at 0.64%, should jump over the 1% level next week and should be heading towards the 1.40% level by the time the next Fed meeting rolls around later next month (on July 27). (Note: For those attending our Money Fund Symposium next week, June 20-22, in Minneapolis, conference materials are being posted to our "Money Fund Symposium 2022 Download Center." Watch for more Powerpoints soon, and for recordings to be posted next week after the show. See you Monday in Minnesota, and Happy Juneteenth!)
Crane Data's latest MFI International shows that assets in European or "offshore" money market mutual funds rose over the past month to $969.0 billion. European MMF assets have declined during the first 4 1/2 months of 2022, after hitting a record high of $1.101 trillion in mid-December. These U.S.-style money funds, domiciled in Ireland or Luxembourg but denominated in US Dollars, Pound Sterling and Euros, increased by $6.2 billion over the 30 days through 6/13. They're down $93.9 billion (-8.8%) year-to-date. Offshore US Dollar money funds are up $20.1 billion over the last 30 days and are down $12.7 billion YTD to $521.7 billion. Euro funds rose E1.5 billion over the past month. YTD they're down E26.7 billion to E131.7 billion. GBP money funds decreased L11.6billion over 30 days; they are down by L26.1 billion YTD to L221.0B. U.S. Dollar (USD) money funds (206) account for over half (53.8%) of the "European" money fund total, while Euro (EUR) money funds (96) make up 15.4% and Pound Sterling (GBP) funds (133) total 30.8%. We summarize our latest "offshore" money fund statistics and our Money Fund Intelligence International Portfolio Holdings (which went out to subscribers Tuesday), below. (Note: For those attending our Money Fund Symposium, June 20-22 in Minneapolis, Minn, conference materials are being posted to our "Money Fund Symposium 2022 Download Center." Watch for more Powerpoints later this week, and for recordings to be posted next week after the show.)
The June issue of our Bond Fund Intelligence, which was sent to subscribers Tuesday morning, features the lead story, "Bond Fund Outflows Continue, Accelerate 5th Straight Month," which reviews the continued slide in assets; and, "ICI's 2022 Fact Book Reviews '21 Bond Fund Trends, Flows," which quotes from the Investment Company Institute's annual statistical update. BFI also recaps the latest Bond Fund News and includes our Crane BFI Indexes, which show that bond fund returns rebounded in May while yields rose for the 8th straight month. We excerpt from the new issue below. (Contact us if you'd like to see our latest Bond Fund Intelligence and BFI XLS spreadsheet, or our Bond Fund Portfolio Holdings data.)
The Federal Reserve released its latest quarterly "Z.1 Financial Accounts of the United States" statistical survey (a.k.a. "Flow of Funds") late last week. Among the 4 tables it includes on money market mutual funds, the First Quarter 2022 edition shows that Total MMF Assets decreased by $115 billion to $5.091 trillion in Q1'22. The Household Sector, by far the largest investor segment with $2.740 trillion, saw the biggest asset decrease in Q1. The second largest segment, Nonfinancial Corporate Businesses, also experienced a drop in assets. The Fed's latest Z.1 numbers, which contain one of the few looks at money fund investor segments available, also shows asset decreases in MMF holdings for the Other Financial Business and Mutual Funds categories in Q1 2022. (Reminder: We're still taking registrations for our upcoming Money Fund Symposium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 20-22. See you next week!)
Crane Data's June Money Fund Portfolio Holdings, with data as of May 31, 2022, show that Treasuries plunged slid again last month while Repo (especially Fed repo) jumped once more. Money market securities held by Taxable U.S. money funds (tracked by Crane Data) decreased by $58.4 billion to $4.826 trillion in May, after decreasing $55.2 billion in April and decreasing $40.9 billion in March. Assets increased $2.9 billion in February but decreased $108.3 billion in January. Repo remained the largest portfolio segment, while Treasuries remained in the No. 2 spot. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York surpassed the U.S. Treasury as the largest "Issuer" to money market funds for the first time ever. Agencies were the third largest segment, CP remained fourth, ahead of CDs, Other/Time Deposits and VRDNs. Below, we review our latest Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics. (Note: Last call for our Money Fund Symposium conference, June 20-22 in Minneapolis, Minn!)
Crane Data's latest monthly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics will be sent out Thursday, and we'll be writing our regular monthly update on the May 31 data for Friday's News. But we also uploaded a separate and broader Portfolio Holdings data set based on the SEC's Form N-MFP filings on Wednesday. (We continue to merge the two series, and the N-MFP version is now available via our Holding file listings to Money Fund Wisdom subscribers.) Our new N-MFP summary, with data as of May 31, includes holdings information from 997 money funds (down 2 funds from last month), representing assets of $4.989 trillion (down from $5.028 trillion). Prime MMFs now total $852.3 billion, or 17.1% of the total. We review the new N-MFP data, and we also look at our revised MMF expense data, which shows charged expenses moving higher again as fee waivers shrank to almost nothing in May, below.
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