The Investment Company Institute released its latest data on "Worldwide Mutual Fund Assets and Flows (Second Quarter 2014)," which shows that global money market mutual fund assets declined slightly overall in Q2 '14. The latest data show worldwide money market mutual fund assets dropping by $57 billion to $4.738 trillion, led by outflows from the U.S. and Europe. Asia continues to show growth though, led by another rapid increase in Chinese money fund assets and a jump in Indian money fund totals. Globally, MMF assets increased by $245 billion over the past year (through 06/30/14). Crane Data excerpts from ICI's latest release and analyzes the money fund portion of the ICI's latest global statistics, below.
ICI's latest quarterly Worldwide Mutual Funds release says, "Mutual fund assets worldwide increased 3.8 percent to $32.00 trillion, an all-time high, at the end of the second quarter of 2014. Worldwide net cash flow to all funds was $291 billion in the second quarter, compared to $357 billion of net inflows in the first quarter of 2014.... Inflows into bond funds totaled $154 billion in the second quarter, up from $96 billion of net inflows in the first quarter. Money market funds experienced outflows of $67 billion in the second quarter of 2014 compared to the $28 billion inflow recorded in the first quarter of 2014."
The quarterly statement explains, "The Investment Company Institute compiles worldwide statistics on behalf of the International Investment Funds Association, an organization of national mutual fund associations. The collection for the second quarter of 2014 contains statistics from 46 countries. The growth rate of total mutual fund assets reported in U.S. dollars was made slightly smaller by U.S. dollar depreciation."
ICI continues, "Money market funds worldwide experienced a net outflow of $67 billion in the second quarter of 2014 after registering a net inflow of $28 billion in the first quarter of 2014. The global outflow from money market funds in the second quarter was driven by outflows of $70 billion in the Americas and $30 billion in Europe. Money market funds in the Asia and Pacific region posted inflows of $32 billion in the second quarter." Note that ICI's data didn't have money fund figures for Australia, the fourth largest country, this quarter, so we included $322 billion for this, the same amount as last quarter.
According to Crane Data's analysis of ICI's worldwide funds data, the U.S. maintained its position as the largest money fund market in Q2'14 with $2.560 trillion (down to 53.4% of all worldwide MMF assets). Assets decreased by $71.1 billion in Q2'14 (they were down by $25.2B in the past year). France remained a distant No. 2 to the U.S. with $419.3 billion (9.3% of worldwide assets, down $25.5 billion in Q2 and down $13.1 billion over 1 year (and down a shocking $273.9 billion since the end of 2009). This was followed by Ireland ($392.8 billion, or 8.2% of total assets), where money fund assets were up $7.9B in Q2 and up $44.6B over 12 months. Australia remained in 4th place in the latest quarter, where assets were flat in the quarter (due to our estimating these) and up $25.9B over the past year to $322.1B (6.7%). Luxembourg remained in 5th place with $307.6B, or 6.7% of the total (down $13.8 billion in Q2 and down $16.4B for 1 year).
China continued its dramatic money fund growth in Q2 of 2014. The 6th largest money fund country saw assets jump again. China now reports $256.7B in total, up $22.3B (9.5%) in Q2 and up a massive $207.2 billion (418.6%) over the last 12 months. The rapid growth of the Chinese money fund industry has been led by China's largest money fund, Yu'e Bao, which has already accumulated over $90 billion in assets since it launched in June 2013. At Crane's European Money Fund Symposium, it was predicted that Yu'e Bao will continue to grow because it is operated by Alipay.com, the payment service for Alibaba, which just completed a $25B IPO. The fund is heavily weighted in Chinese bank deposits. The company is planning to launch a Hong Kong version of the fund, as detailed in our October 1 "Link of the Day".
ICI's latest Worldwide statistics also show Korea ($73.4B, up $3.0B and up $12.2B on the quarter and year, respectively), Brazil ($57.8B, up $2.7B and up $6.6), and Mexico ($56.2B, up $1.8B and down $798M) remaining in the 7th through 9th largest money fund market spots. India moved into 10th place with a huge 61.3% jump of $13.6B (to $25.9B), moving ahead of Taiwan ($27.2B), which saw assets drop $457M in the quarter. South Africa, Canada, Sweden, Japan, Switzerland, Chile, Finland, Norway, and Italy also ranked among the 20 largest countries that have money market mutual funds.
Note that Ireland and Luxembourg's totals are primarily "offshore" money funds marketed to global multinationals, while most of the other countries in the survey have primarily domestic money fund offerings. (Crane Data believes that some of these countries, like France and Italy, do not have true "money market funds" due to their lack of strict guidelines and "accumulating" NAVs instead of stable NAVs.)
Contact us if you'd like our latest "Largest Money Market Funds Markets Worldwide" spreadsheet, based on ICI's data. Finally, for those interested in global money funds, check out our coverage of the 2nd annual European Money Fund Symposium, which took place Sept. 22-23, 2014 in London, England.
