Crane Web Access

Crane Web Access Sample A press release entitled, "Moody's assigns Aaa-mf rating to HSBC US Dollar ESG Liquidity Fund," tells us, "Moody's Investors Service has assigned an Aaa-mf rating to HSBC US Dollar ESG Liquidity Fund, a new low volatility net asset value money market fund, domiciled in Ireland and managed by HSBC Global Asset Management (USA) Inc. This Fund is classified as Article 8 under the European Union Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation and must, as such, promote environmental or social characteristics. The Fund's primary investment objective will be to maintain the principal and to provide shareholders with daily liquidity with an income which is comparable to US Dollar denominated short dated money market interest rates." Moody's explains, "The Aaa-mf rating reflects Moody's view that the Fund will have a strong ability to meet its objectives of providing liquidity and preserving capital. This view is supported by the model portfolio's high scores for each of the key rating factors, including credit quality, asset profile, liquidity and exposure to market risk. The Fund will invest in a diversified portfolio of short-term securities, instruments and obligations which are of high quality at the time of purchase, with an additional focus on the performance of the underlying issuers on a range of ESG (environmental, social, governance) metrics. HSBC Global Asset Management (USA) Inc., the Fund advisor, determines an ESG score for each issuer in the universe, made up of individual E, S and G scores and weighted based on a proprietary model. The Fund's eligible investment universe will be limited to issuers that score in the top three quartiles based on the aggregate ESG score, while the issuers in the bottom decile for each individual component of E, S and G will also be excluded. The Fund's weighted average maturity will be below 60 days and we expect the Fund to maintain a strong liquidity profile supported by high levels of overnight and weekly liquidity in the portfolio. As a result, we expect the Fund to have a very low exposure to market risk." The release adds, "The rating agency expects the Fund will be managed in line with the model portfolio. However, Moody's notes that if the Fund's investment portfolio was to deviate materially from the model portfolio, the Fund's rating could be changed. The Fund will be launched on 12 October 2022. It will operate under the low volatility net asset value (LVNAV) fund structure domiciled in Ireland and offer a same day settlement. Moody's expects modest shareholder concentration risk during the Fund's ramp-up period to diminish as the Fund grows in size and its shareholder base diversifies. HSBC Global Asset Management (USA) Inc., the fund's investment advisor, is part of the asset management business of HSBC Holdings plc that had $595 billion in assets under management worldwide as of 30 June 2022, of which about $146 billion are invested in liquidity funds."

Issues

Latest Contents ()


The content page contains archives and delivery settings for all subscriptions.

Product Summary
Price Free!
News -
Ranks -
Funds -
Archives -
Index -
Next Steps
Register Now »
Call 1-508-439-4419 for order or info.

Crane Web Access News

Apr 08
 

The April issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Wednesday morning, features the articles: "JPM: Corporates Driving MMF Asset Gains; A Look at Fed Z.1," which reviews corporate cash balances and their impact on money fund growth; "Bond Fund Symposium in Boston: Ho & Schneider," which quotes from our recent ultra-short bond fund conference; and "Fidelity Reserves Digital, 5th Stablecoin Reserve Fund," which discusses the latest Stablecoin Reserves money market funds. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Wednesday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 3/31/26 data. Our April Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Friday, April 10, and our April Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Wednesday, April 15.

MFI's "Corporates" story says, "A recent 'Short-Term Fixed Income' from J.P. Morgan Securities' featured a section titled, 'Corporates maintain large liquidity portfolios, and even larger cash balances.' It states, 'As expected, corporations continue to maintain large liquidity portfolios. Based on balance sheet data for S&P 500 non-financial companies, we estimate liquidity portfolio balances as of 4Q25 registered $2.6tn, an increase of $119bn QoQ and $257bn YoY. At these levels, they surpass even the prior peak of $2.5tn in the months after Covid in 2020.'"

The story states, "The brief continues, 'Notably, cash and cash equivalents rose materially, even as investment securities drove most of the increase in liquidity portfolios. We estimate aggregate cash and cash equivalents rose by nearly $117bn last year, reaching $1.38tn by 4Q25.... This marks one of the larger annual increases in cash and cash equivalents, though still behind what we saw in 2020 and 2023. [A]s far as cash levels go, ... this will be the highest amount of cash and cash equivalents corporations have held in at least a decade.'"

We write in the "Bond Fund Symposium Boston," story, "We recently hosted our latest Crane's Bond Fund Symposium in Boston, which brings together ultra-short bond fund managers and securities issuers. The keynote talk, 'Ultra‐Short Bond Funds: Spring Break,' featured J.P. Morgan Securities' Teresa Ho and PIMCO's Jerome Schneider. The latter comments, 'First of all, thanks for being here. Once again, it's obviously a great forum to see friends. And it's important, not just because of where we are today, and we can talk about the factors of where the economy is going, and waking up every moment to see where rates are going, things like that. But ... what we do here is probably described as calm amongst a storm of uncertainty ... [within] the broader landscape.'"

It continues, "He tells us, 'So, my [role at] PIMCO is running short-term low duration strategies in addition to some of our portable alpha strategies.... From that vantage point, I think about the best way to optimize cash and ... shorter duration type of fixed income allocations.' (Note: Thanks again to those who supported Bond Fund Symposium! Attendees and Crane Data subscribers may access the conference binder, Powerpoints and recordings via our 'Bond Fund Symposium 2026 Download Center.')"

Our "Fidelity Reserves" article says, "Fidelity Investments is the 5th money fund manager to launch a Stablecoin Reserves money market fund, following BlackRock's Circle Treasury Reserves, and Stablecoin Reserves offerings from State Street, Goldman Sachs and BNY. A Registration Statement tells us, 'Fidelity Reserves Digital Fund seeks to obtain as high a level of current in come as is consistent with the preservation of capital and liquidity.' (See our March 30 News, 'Arca Capital Management Files for US Treasury Money Mkt Digital Fund,' which says, 'Arca Capital Management filed a Form N-1A registration statement for Arca U.S. Treasury Money Market Digital Fund.')"

It continues, "Fidelity Reserves Digital's Principal Investment Strategies include: 'Investing only in U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds with a remaining maturity of, or issued with a maturity of, 93 days or less, cash, and overnight repurchase agreements fully collateralized by U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds, and other registered government money market funds; Investing only in eligible reserve assets that payment stablecoin issuers are permitted to maintain under the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act ('GENIUS Act') and any regulations adopted thereunder; and, Investing in compliance with industry-standard regulatory requirements for money market funds for the quality, maturity, liquidity, and diversification of investments."

MFI also includes the News brief, "MMFs Hit Record $8.279 Tril., Then Dip in Late March. Money market mutual fund assets jumped to a record high of $​8.​279 trillion on 3/18, according to our Money Fund Intelligence Daily. But assets then fell. They declined by $56.6 billion in March to $8.201 trillion."

Another News brief, "Fed Holds Rates at 3.5-3.75%." It says, "The Federal Reserve's latest FOMC Statement says, 'The Committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 3.5 to 3.75%.' Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index inched lower to 3.48% in March."

A third News brief, "Reuters: War and Record MMF Assets," says, "Reuters writes 'Investors drive US money market fund assets to records as war-related risk fears multiply.' The piece says, 'As the Iran conflict intensifies, the spike in oil prices and rising inflation fears are spurring investors to ditch stocks as too risky and shun traditional safe havens such as gold in favor of money market funds. The result: assets in those ultra-short-term and ultra-safe Treasury funds are now hovering around $8 trillion, according to calculations from providers such as the Investment Company Institute, JPMorgan Chase and Crane Data.'"

A sidebar, "Donahue Talks Tokenized," says, "Federated Hermes' Chris Donahue spoke recently at the '2026 RBC Capital Markets Global Financial Institutions Conference,' and made a number of comments on tokenization. He says, 'The BNY, Goldman deal is where we have our regular fund. BNY makes a token. The token invests, in effect, money in the fund, so the money fund's the same as it was five minutes ago, and it participates in Goldman's platform. That's another whole deal. Archax is one we're doing in Europe.... We have the structures inside to actually tokenize a money fund.'"

Our April MFI XLS, with March 31 data, shows total assets fell $56.6 billion to $8.201 trillion, after 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 in May. MMFs decreased $26.6 billion last April.

Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was down 1 bp at 3.37%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was down 1 bp at 3.48% in March. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 3.74% 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 3/31/26 on Thursday, 4/9.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 41 days (up 1 day) and the Crane 100 WAM was up 1 day from the previous month at 43 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)

Feb 06
 

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.

MFI's "MMF Assets Cool Down" story says, "Money fund assets increased by $38.5 billion to a record $8.160 trillion in January, according to our Money Fund Intelligence XLS. The asset slowdown follows 5 straight months of $100+ billion increases, but normally January sees outflows. We show the average monthly change in money fund assets over the past 15 years (2011-2025) in the chart below. January is the second weakest month (after June) and normally sees outflows of about $14 billion. (Note that March and April are normally very weak, but these were inflated by huge inflows in 2020 due to the Covid shutdown and 2023 due to the SVB bankruptcy.)"

The story continues, "Assets increased by $126.3 billion in December, $132.8 billion in November, $142.1 billion in October, $105.2 billion in September and $132.0 billion in August. They rose $63.7 billion in July, $6.7 billion in June and $100.9 billion in May. MMFs fell by $24.4 billion in April, but rose $2.8 trillion in March, $94.2 billion in February and $52.8 billion last January. 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."

We write in the "Federated," story, "Federated Hermes reported it Q4'25 earnings and hosted its Q4'25 earnings call late last week. 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 ... interest in our growing range of investment solutions beyond mutual funds, including ETFs, CITs and SMAs.'"

It adds, "Donahue explains on the call, 'We reached another record high at the end of 2025 for total money market assets, which increased by $30 billion to reach $683 billion. Money market fund assets increased by $16 billion or 3% in Q4 to reach a record high of $508 billion. Money market separate accounts increased by $14 billion in the fourth quarter, reflecting seasonal patterns. Market conditions remain favorable for cash as an asset class. In addition to the appeal of relative safety in periods of volatility, money market strategies present opportunities to earn attractive yields compared to alternatives such as bank deposits and direct investments in T-bills and commercial paper.'"

Our "LGIP" article says, "The Public Funds Investment Institute (PFII) writes on 'LGIPs: New Pools and Manager Changes.' They explain, 'In October 2024 we wrote about local government investment pools changing managers. It's unusual but not unheard of in the LGIP business. Sometimes an LGIP simply replaces a manager and sometimes local governments band together to create a new fund to bring in a manager or expand competition in a state. We've seen both recently.'"

It continues, "The PFII writes, 'California: CalFIT (California Fixed Income Trust) is a new LGIP that began offering a stable value portfolio in the fall. It invests in government and high grade corporate and bank obligations and is managed by Chandler Asset Management, a California based firm that entered the LGIP business in 2024 when it replaced Public Trust Advisors as manager of the FL SAFE LGIP in Florida. As of December 31, 2025, CalFIT reported $331 million in assets. California has a long-established state-sponsored and three other local sponsored LGIPs. Large states are well able to support multiple LGIPs. California joins Florida and Texas in this regard.'"

MFI also includes the News brief, "Money Fund Yields Stabilize at 3.5%, Lowest Since 11/22." It says, "Yields (7-day, annualized, simple, net) fell by 8 bps to 3.50% on average during January (as measured by our Crane 100 Money Fund Index). Fund yields should remain flat given that the Fed left rates unchanged at its Jan. 28 meeting. Yields haven't been below 3.5% since Nov. 2022. They're down from a recent high of 5.20% in Nov. 2023. MMF yields were 3.58% on 12/31/25, 3.94% on 9/30, 4.13% on 6/30, 4.14% on 3/31/25 and 4.28% on average on 12/​31/​24. MMFs averaged 4.75% on 9/30/24, 5.10% on 6/28/24, 5.14% on 3/31/24 and 5.20% on 12/31/23."

Another News brief, "Fed Z.1 Shows Jump in Household, Corporate Assets; T-Bills Surge in Q3," comments, "The Federal Reserve's latest quarterly 'Z.1 Financial Accounts of the United States' statistical survey (a.k.a. 'Flow of Funds') includes 4 tables on money market mutual funds. The Third Quarter 2025 edition shows that Total MMF Assets increased by $293 billion to $7.774 trillion in Q3’25. The Household Sector, by far the largest investor segment with $5.035 trillion, saw the biggest asset increase in Q3, followed by Nonfinancial Corporate Business and Other Financial Business (formerly Funding Corps). The Fed’s latest Z.1 numbers, which contain one of the few looks at money fund investor segments available, also showed noticeable increases for the Mutual Funds and Rest of the World categories in Q3 2025."

A third News brief, "MMFs in Retirement Plans Approach $1 Trillion," says: "The Investment Company Institute published, 'Retirement Assets Total $48.1 Trillion in Third Quarter 2025,' which includes data tables showing that money market funds held in retirement accounts jumped to $987 billion (up from $966 billion) in the latest quarter, accounting for 13% of the total $7.321 trillion in money funds. MMFs represent just 6.8% of the total $14.5 trillion of mutual funds in retirement accounts."

A sidebar, "BlackRock Q4 Call on Cash," says, "BlackRock CFO Martin Small comments on their latest earnings call, 'BlackRock Cash Management saw $74 billion of net inflows in the fourth quarter and $131 billion in 2025, driven by U.S. Government, International, Prime and Circle Reserve Funds. BlackRock’s platform is anchored by growth engines tied to the long-term expansion of global capital markets and fast-growing client product channels.'"

Our February MFI XLS, with January 31 data, shows total assets rose $38.5 billion to a record high $8.160 trillion, after increasing $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 in May. MMFs decreased $26.6 billion in April and $4.6 billion in March. Assets increased $90.4 billion last February.

Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was down 7 bps at 3.40%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was down 8 bps at 3.50% in January. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 3.77% and 3.77%. Charged Expenses averaged 0.37% and 0.27% for the Crane MFA and the Crane 100. (We'll revise expenses once we upload the SEC's Form N-MFP data for 1/31/26 on Monday, 2/9.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 39 days (up 1 day) and the Crane 100 WAM was up 2 days from the previous month at 42 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)

Feb 05
 

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!)

Bond Fund Symposium's Day One (3/19) morning agenda includes: Ultra-Short Bond Fund Update: Spring Break with Teresa Ho of J.P. Morgan Securities and Jerome Schneider of PIMCO; State of the Bond Fund Marketplace, with Lei Li of ICI and Peter Crane of Crane Data; and Bond Market Strategists: Rates & Returns, with Will Hoffman of Bloomberg Intelligence. (Note: The agenda is still shifting slightly, so let us know if you're interested in speaking or have any requests!)

The Day One afternoon agenda includes: Senior Portfolio Manager Perspectives moderated by Peter Crane of Crane Data with Richard Mejzak of BlackRock, Dave Rothweiler of UBS Asset Management and Dave Martucci of J.P. Morgan A.M.; LGIPs, SMAs & Stable Value Funds moderated by John Donohue of RBC Global A.M. with Kelsey Bosshard of RBC Global AM, Peter Gargiulo of Fitch Ratings and Patricia Kao of Silicon Valley Bank; Stable Value & Core Bond Fund Issues with Kevin Calabro of Franklin Templeton and Michael Salvay of Payden & Rygel; and, ETF Index & Near-Cash ETF Trends featuring Marcel Benjamin of State Street's SPDR Fixed-Income Group, James Palmieri of State Street Investment Management and Rahul Ghai of S&P Global Ratings. Thursday will close with a reception sponsored by Northern Trust (which is open to anyone in the area to "crash").

Day Two's agenda includes: Money Funds & Conservative Ultra-Shorts with Peter Crane of Crane Data and Morten Olsen of Northern Trust A.M.; Regulatory Update: Bond Fund Issues '26 with Louis Rosenbaum of Dechert LLP and Jamie Gershkow of Stradley Ronon; Sustainable & European Bond Fund Update with Henry Shilling of Sustainable Research & Analysis and John Hunt of Sullivan & Worcester LLP; and, Bond Fund Data & Information with Peter Crane of Crane Data.

Portfolio managers, analysts, investors, issuers, service providers, and anyone interested in expanding their knowledge of bond funds and fixed-income investing will benefit from our comprehensive program. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Hyatt Regency Boston. We'd like to thank our sponsors and exhibitors -- Northern Trust Asset Management, Capitolis, UBS Asset Management, Mayer Brown, Northcross, Fitch Ratings, Fidelity Investments, J.P. Morgan, Bloomberg Intelligence, Payden & Rygel, PIMCO and Dechert -- for their support. (We'd also love to get some new ones!) E-mail us for more details, and let us know if you'd like to request a free ticket or 2-for-1 deal!

Also, our annual Money Fund Symposium will be held June 24-26, 2026 at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City. Crane's Money Fund Symposium covers the latest trends in money funds, interest rates, regulations, ratings, and money market instruments such as commercial paper, CDs and repo. We also include segments on offshore money funds, money market ETFs, stablecoin reserves and tokenized money funds.

Money Fund Symposium is run by Crane Data, publisher of the Money Fund Intelligence newsletter. It offers money market portfolio managers, investors, issuers, dealers and service providers a concentrated and affordable educational experience and informal networking venue. Registration is $1,000 and includes meals, beverages, binders and t-shirts. Exhibit space is $3,000 (and includes 2 tickets); and sponsorship opportunities are $4.5K (3 tickets), $6K (4 tickets), $7.5K (5 tickets) and $10K (8 tickets). The latest MFS agenda is available online and we are now taking registrations. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City.

We'll also soon start making plans for our European Money Fund Symposium, which will be held Sept. 24-25, 2026, at The Pullman Hotel in Paris, France. (Let us know if you'd like details on speaking or sponsoring.) Finally, mark your calendars for our next Money Fund University, which will be held Dec. 17-18 in Greenwich, Conn. Watch for details on these shows in coming weeks and months, and we hope to see you in Boston, Jersey City, Paris or Greenwich in 2026!

Jan 08
 

The January issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Thursday morning, features the articles: "Yields Drop to 3.6%; Assets Break Through $8.1 Trillion," which discusses the decline in yields but continued jump in assets; "ICI: Worldwide MMFs Jump in Q3'25 to $12.7T; China $2T," which looks at the latest MMF statistics outside the U.S.; and "Top Money Funds of 2025; 17th Annual MFI Awards," which reviews the best performing MMFs of 2025. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Thursday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 12/31/25 data. Our January Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Monday, Jan. 12, and our January Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Thursday, Jan. 15.

MFI's "Yields Drop to 3.6%" story says, "Money market mutual fund assets jumped by another $123.5 billion in December to a record $8.116 trillion, according to our monthly MFI XLS. In 2025, assets rose by $932.6 billion, or 13.0%. Assets have continued higher in January month-to-date, rising by $56.6B to a record $8.165 trillion (as of 1/6/26).

The story continues, "MMF assets increased by $132.8 billion in November, $142.1 billion in October, $105.2 billion in September and $132.0 billion in August. They rose by $63.7 billion in July, $6.7 billion in June and $100.9 billion in May. But MMFs decreased $24.4 billion in April. Assets increased by $2.8 billion in March, $94.2 billion in February, $52.8 billion in January, and $110.9 billion last December."

We write in the "ICI: Worldwide," story, "The Investment Company Institute's 'Worldwide Regulated Open-Fund Assets and Flows, Third Quarter 2025' shows that money fund assets globally rose by $430.2 billion, or 3.5%, in Q3'25 to a record $12.745 trillion. Increases were led by a sharp jump in money funds in the U.S. and China, while Ireland and Luxembourg also rose. Meanwhile, money funds in Korea were lower. MMF assets worldwide increased by $1.530 trillion, or 13.6%, in the 12 months through 9/30/25, and money funds in the U.S. now represent 57.4% of worldwide assets."

It adds, "ICI's release says, 'Worldwide regulated open-end fund assets, excluding assets in funds of funds, increased 5.0% to $84.90 trillion at the end of the third quarter of 2025. Worldwide net cash inflow to all funds was $821 billion in the third quarter, compared with $714 billion of net inflows in the second quarter of 2025. The Investment Company Institute compiles worldwide regulated open-end fund statistics on behalf of the International Investment Funds Association (IIFA), the organization of national fund associations. The collection for the third quarter of 2025 contains statistics from 44 jurisdictions.'"

Our "Top Money Funds of 2025" article says, "This issue recognizes the top performing money funds, ranked by total returns, for calendar year 2025, as well as the top funds for the past 5‐year and 10‐year periods. We present the funds below with our annual Money Fund Intelligence Awards. These are given to the No. 1‐ranked funds based on 1‐year, 5‐year and 10‐year returns, through Dec. 31, 2025, in each of our major fund categories -- Prime Institutional, Government Institutional, Treasury Institutional, Prime Retail, Government Retail, Treasury Retail and Tax‐Exempt."

It continues, "The Top-Performing Prime Inst fund (and fund overall) was BlackRock Cash Inst MMF SL (BISXX), which returned 4.46%. Among Prime Retail money funds, Morgan Stanley Inst Liq MMP Wealth (MWMXX) had the best return in 2025 (4.37%). (Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index returned 4.11% in 2025.)

MFI also includes the News brief, "Fed Cuts Funds Target to 3.5-3.75%." It says, "As expected, the Federal Reserve's FOMC cut interest rates by a quarter percent to a range of 3.5-3.75% on Dec. 10. See the release, 'Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement.'"

Another News brief, "Boston Fed Paper Examines Vulnerabilities of MM ETFs, Tokenized MMFs," comments, "The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston published, 'A Framework for Understanding the Vulnerabilities of New Money-Like Products.' It says, '[T]he recent emergence of new types of non-bank money-like products, such as stablecoins, tokenized money market funds (MMFs), and money market exchange-traded funds (MMETFs), could be transformative for finance.... [L]ike other money-like assets, such as uninsured deposits and MMFs, the new products can be susceptible to costly, disruptive runs and thus contribute to financial system vulnerabilities.'"

A third News brief, "JPM Treasury MM ETF Live," says: "A release, 'J.P. Morgan Asset Management Unveils New JPMorgan 100% U.S. Treasury Securities Money Market ETF (JMMF),' states, 'J.P. Morgan Asset Management ... announced the launch of the JPMorgan 100% U.S. Treasury Securities Money Market ETF (JMMF) on the NYSE Arca. JMMF is designed to offer investors current income, easy access to their funds, and low volatility of principal, while also providing the convenience and transparency of an ETF. As demand for active ETFs continues to grow, investors are seeking more strategies across asset classes that offer greater transparency and ... flexibility.'"

A sidebar, "JPMAM Tokenized MMF Live," says, "A release titled, 'J.P. Morgan Asset Management Launches Its First Tokenized Money Market Fund.' states, 'JPMAM ... announced the launch of its first tokenized money market fund, My OnChain Net Yield Fund ('MONY'), now available on the public Ethereum blockchain. Powered by Kinexys Digital Assets, the firm's industry-leading, multi-chain asset tokenization solution, MONY is a 506(c) private placement fund providing qualified investors the opportunity to earn U.S. dollar yields by subscribing through Morgan Money, the firm's ... platform for liquidity management. Morgan Money is the first institutional liquidity trading platform to integrate traditional and on-chain assets offering investors access to a full-range of money market products.'"

Our January MFI XLS, with December 31 data, shows total assets rose $123.5 billion to a record high $8.116 trillion, after increasing $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 in May. MMFs decreased $26.6 billion in April and $4.6 billion in March. Assets increased $90.4 billion in February and $47.9 billion last January.

Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was down 20 bps at 3.48%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was down 20 bps at 3.58% in December. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 3.85% and 3.85%. Charged Expenses averaged 0.37% and 0.27% for the Crane MFA and the Crane 100. (We'll revise expenses once we upload the SEC's Form N-MFP data for 12/31/25 on Friday, 1/9.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 38 days (unchanged) and the Crane 100 WAM was unchanged from the previous month at 40 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)