ICI: New Year, New MMF Record
The Investment Company Institute's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows MMF assets `starting off the New Year with a bang, jumping $78.6 billion to a record high $5.965 trillion. They rose last week too, but fell the two weeks prior. The latest weekly increase pushed assets above the previous record level of $5.898 trillion set on 12/6/23. Assets are up by $79 billion, or 1.7%, year-to-date in 2024, with Institutional MMFs up $41 billion, or 1.3% and Retail MMFs up $38 billion, or 2.3%. Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen a massive $1.152 trillion, or 23.9%, with Retail MMFs rising by $607 billion (35.3%) and Inst MMFs rising by $544 billion (17.6%). The weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $78.61 billion to $5.97 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, January 3, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $64.71 billion and prime funds increased by $10.28 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $3.62 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs rising $40.7 billion and Retail MMFs rising $37.9 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.878 trillion (81.8% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $961.7 billion (16.1%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $125.7 billion (2.1%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $37.87 billion to $2.33 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $26.39 billion to $1.52 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $9.32 billion to $695.80 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $2.15 billion to $113.27 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 39.0%, and Government Retail assets make up 65.2% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $40.74 billion to $3.64 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $38.32 billion to $3.36 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $954 million to $265.91 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.47 billion to $12.41 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 61.0% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 92.3% of all Institutional MMF totals. According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets rose $42.3 billion in the first 3 days of January to $6.343 trillion, slightly off their record $6.355 trillion level set on 1/2/24. Assets rose $32.7 billion in December, jumped $226.4 billion in November but fell by $31.9 billion in October. They rose $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.
