If you browse the news archives of http://www.cranedata.us and our publication, Money Fund Intelligence, you’ll notice an increasing number of references to online trading money fund “portals”. These sites or programs account for from 10%-15% of institutional money fund assets, or approximately $140-$210 billion (depending upon whether you include online only or all “platforms”). Costs that fund companies pay distributors reportedly range anywhere from 1-15 basis points, with the bulk of payments clustered in the 3-7 basis point range. (We’re guessing at both of these estimates above — no hard numbers exist yet, though we hope to survey in ‘07.)
We’d like to start a discussion about the players, pros, and cons of money fund portals. For a listing of online money market trading portals, or money fund supermarkets, go to: http://www.cranedata.us/resources/resources/#supermarkets.
We’ve been discussing money fund balance asset totals with various online money market trading portals, and estimate that approximately $210 billion is traded through these platforms. Contact pete@cranedata.us if you’d like to discuss the makeup of these numbers and our “league table” of money fund supermarkets.