BlackRock rattles giant saber at Schwab and Fidelity by launching high-yield 'money market' funds that 'circumvent' shelf-space controls and pay big

The $12-trillion firm steered clear of the retail giants' cash cows until this month, when it launched ETFs that mimic the custodians' best offerings -- albeit with caveats.

Author Oisin Breen February 22, 2025 at 3:02 AM

2 Comments

R. Scott Victoria: Mutual funds require an agreement between the broker-dealer [or] clearing firm and the fund company, whereas an ETF would not.

Brooke Southall and Keith Girard contributed to the editing of this article.

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Stephen

February 22, 2025 — 6:41 AM

The analysis regarding SEC yields and expenses is wrong. First, SEC yields are inclusive of expense ratios, so the statement that the new BlackRock ETF fund yields are "before 20-basis-point fees" is just simply incorrect. Further, as of 2/21/25, SWVXX has a 7-day SEC yield of 4.19% and an expense ratio of 34bp --- not 4.34% and 19bp, respectively. The author mistakenly used data for SNAXX, the Ultra Shares, despite saying "only the latter has a $1M minimum", even though SNAXX also has a $1M minimum. While SNAXX (4.34% 7-day SEC yield) yields higher than PMFF (4.29% 7-day SEC yield), PMFF has a 10bp pickup on yield over SWVXX (4.19%). Notably, SWVXX has nearly 2x the amount of net assets as SNAXX due to not having a $1M minimum. With no minimum and having the lions share of assets for Schwab money funds, it's clearly a better comp to PMFF.

Oisín Breen

February 22, 2025 — 9:24 AM

Thanks indeed for spotting this Stephen. The piece went out relatively late in our various necks of the woods, and you're quite right on SWVXX, and indeed quite right on how the mistake arose in the editorial process. Tweaked it now. Very much obliged to you! Hope you've a grand Saturday ahead, and thanks again.

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