Money market funds held $7.89 trillion for the week ending September 30, 2026 (Investment Company Institute). Their rates track the Federal Reserve’s target range, which has now moved through a full cycle. The range peaked at 5.25-5.50% in 2023, fell through the cuts of 2024 and 2025, and rose again in September 2026, to 3.75-4.00% (Federal Reserve).
For trust companies and banks with trust departments, each turn brings the same customer questions: why did the rates change, and are my trust customers’ deposits insured?
Customers Expect More Than Rates
Rates draw cash into money market funds. However, trust company and bank trust department customers expect more from their cash than rates.
Insured cash sweep programs help institutions meet those customer expectations across rate cycles, without the reinvestment risk that comes with chasing money fund rates.
Money Market Fund Assets Keep Climbing
Total financial assets, quarter-end, Q2 2020 to Q2 2026
Federal Reserve Board, Financial Accounts of the United States (Z.1), money market funds’ total financial assets, via FRED (series MMMFFAQ027S), as of October 27, 2026. Quarter-end values.
Uninsured Balances Keep Growing
In the second quarter of 2026, estimated uninsured domestic deposits rose $317.4 billion and drove the quarter’s deposit growth (FDIC, Quarterly Banking Profile, Q2 2026). For the full breakdown, see Insured Trust Deposits: Strategies for Trust Organizations.
A large customer balance at a single bank is the simplest place for that exposure to build. Through the Demand Deposit Marketplace® (DDM®) program, a trust company or bank with a trust department can spread its customers’ cash across a network of FDIC-insured receiving banks. Customers get access to expanded deposit insurance coverage through those participating banks, while maintaining their primary trust company relationship.
Money Market Fund Uncertainty
History shows why trust companies and bank trust departments should not rely on money market funds alone:
Each cycle makes the same point: money market funds are cyclical, not structural. A money market fund does not offer customers access to FDIC insurance. Trust companies and bank trust departments need a cash option for their customers that holds up through the entire cycle.
Redefining the Standard
The measure of good cash management is shifting from institutions that solely capture the highest rates to institutions that best protect customers’ confidence.
Insured cash sweep programs help institutions meet all four.3
The DDM program enables trust companies and bank trust departments to offer their customers access to expanded FDIC deposit insurance coverage through a network of receiving banks. Independent trust companies use the DDM program to place customer deposits that exceed the FDIC insurance limit for coverage, often simplifying operations while maintaining the primary relationship. Bank-affiliated trust companies and bank trust departments have an added option. The affiliated bank can act as a receiving institution under the program to receive reciprocal deposits, which can be treated as non-brokered funding within the statutory cap.4
DDM Performance and Integration
Over 1-, 3-, and 5-year periods, rates paid under the DDM program’s Institutional Rate have historically been in line with or higher than those on a basket of institutional government money market funds.*
Performance Data
*R&T MMF Index: TSTXX, DGCXX, GOFXX, GOTXX, TOIXX, FRGXX, FGTXX, NITXX. All performance data net of fees as of 09/30/26. The R&T MMF Index represents 8 commonly used MMFs, sourced from the monthly Crane Money Fund Intelligence Report.
R&T integrates with more than 50 core processors and adapts to client formats without requiring changes to existing systems, so trust companies and bank trust departments can adopt an insured cash program without disruption. The DDM program connects directly with existing trust accounting platforms, and portals, APIs, and data-exchange tools give trust officers real-time visibility into balances, transactions, and reporting, without manual workarounds.
The Imperative
Since 2022, rates have climbed, fallen, and started climbing again. For trust companies and bank trust departments, protecting principal and keeping cash available matters at every point in the cycle, and insured programs are now the baseline expectation for trust customers’ cash.3
Learn more about the DDM® program for trust companies.
1 Subject to R&T’s cut-off times. Under the DDM program, funds are deposited into demand deposit accounts (DDAs) or money market deposit accounts (MMDAs) at receiving banks or share draft accounts or share accounts at receiving credit unions. While customers’ funds are held in MMDAs or share accounts, the return of customers’ funds from the DDM program may be delayed as, under federal regulations, the receiving institution is permitted to impose a delay of up to seven days on any withdrawal request from an MMDA or share account.
2 While interest rates obtained on funds placed at receiving institutions under the DDM program may, under certain circumstances, outperform cash alternatives, such as money market funds, the primary objective of the DDM program is to provide customers with convenient access to expanded FDIC insurance coverage on their funds (and not for investment enhancements or higher rates of returns or profits).
3 R&T does not act in a fiduciary or trustee capacity with respect to the DDM program (the “Program”) and makes no representations or warranties that the Program satisfies any investment policy or other requirements for participating institutions. R&T does not represent that the Program enables participating institutions to meet their own fiduciary or other obligations or duties. Participating institutions are solely responsible for complying with all such policies and requirements, as well as any other applicable laws or regulations governing the deposit of specific types of funds into the Program (e.g., qualified retirement funds, free credit balances of brokerage institutions, escrow funds). R&T makes no representations or warranties that the Program complies with any such laws, except to the extent expressly set forth in the written agreements entered into between R&T and the participating institution.
4 Subject to applicable laws, regulations, rules, and limits relating to brokered deposits, including Section 29 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (12 U.S.C. 1831f), as amended, its implementing regulations, including 12 CFR 337.6, and applicable Call Report instructions from the FFIEC. R&T makes no representations or warranties, express or implied, with respect to an institution’s classification of deposits as brokered or not brokered. Such determination is entirely and solely the responsibility of that institution.