ICI: MMF Assets Retake Record $5.7T
The Investment Company Institute's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows MMF assets jumping for the third week in a row after plunging in mid-October of tax payments and a big corporate takeover. ICI's asset series rose $16.9 billion (after jumping $62.7 billion the prior week) to $5.71 trillion. Assets are up by $977 billion, or 20.6%, year-to-date in 2023, with Institutional MMFs up $434 billion, or 14.3% and Retail MMFs up $543 billion, or 32.4%. Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen a massive $1.094 trillion, or 23.7%, with Retail MMFs rising by $630 billion (39.6%) and Inst MMFs rising by $464 billion (15.3%). The weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $16.88 billion to $5.71 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, November 8, the Investment Company Institute reported. Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $9.63 billion and prime funds increased by $6.35 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $896 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs rising $10.9 billion and Retail MMFs rising $6.0 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.661 trillion (81.6% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $926.3 billion (16.2%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $125.1 billion (2.2%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $6.02 billion to $2.22 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $241 million to $1.44 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $4.47 billion to $662.82 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.79 billion to $112.94 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 38.9%, and Government Retail assets make up 65.1% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $10.86 billion to $3.49 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $9.87 billion to $3.22 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $1.88 billion to $263.50 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $891 million to $12.13 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 61.1% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 92.1% of all Institutional MMF totals. According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets rose $59.8 billion in the first 8 days of November to $6.101 trillion. Assets fell by $31.9 billion in October after rising by $93.9 billion in September, $98.3 billion in August and $34.7 billion in July. Note that ICI's asset totals don't include a number of funds tracked by the SEC and Crane Data, so they're over $400 billion lower than Crane's asset series.
