The Investment Company Institute, the trade group for the mutual fund industry, published its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report and its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" and "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" for February 2024 on Thursday. The former shows money market mutual fund assets inching lower to $6.041 trillion in the latest week after a big decline the previous week, which included the March 15 quarterly corporate tax date. MMF assets are up by $154 billion, or 3.3%, year-to-date in 2024 (through 3/27/24), with Institutional MMFs up $41 billion, or 1.3% and Retail MMFs up $114 billion, or 6.8%. Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen a massive $843 billion, or 16.2%, with Retail MMFs rising by $530 billion (28.3%) and Inst MMFs rising by $312 billion (9.4%). (Note: Thanks again to those who attended our Bond Fund Symposium earlier this week in Philadelphia! Attendees and Crane Data subscribers may access the conference binder, Powerpoints and recordings (after the show) via our "Bond Fund Symposium 2024 Download Center.")
The weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $5.68 billion to $6.04 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, March 27, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $10.26 billion and prime funds increased by $4.52 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $59 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs falling $10.0 billion and Retail MMFs rising $4.3 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.896 trillion (81.0% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.024 trillion (17.0%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $121.3 billion (2.0%).
ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $4.31 billion to $2.40 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $2.14 billion to $1.54 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $1.70 billion to $749.96 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $468 million to $110.56 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 39.8%, and Government Retail assets make up 64.2% of all Retail MMFs.
They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $9.99 billion to $3.64 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $12.40 billion to $3.35 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.82 billion to $273.99 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $409 million to $10.70 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 60.2% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 92.2% of all institutional MMF totals.
According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have fallen by $6.7 billion in March (through 3/27) to $6.460 trillion (they were a record $6.519 trillion on 3/12). Assets rose $72.1 billion in February, $93.9 billion in January, $32.7 billion in December and $226.4 billion in November. MMF totals 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.
ICI's monthly Trends shows money fund totals rising $55.1 billion in February to a record $6.057 trillion (after a jump in January, December and November, a decrease in October, and increases in September, August, July, June, May and April). Prior to this, the March 2023 jump (a $371.0 billion increase) was the third largest monthly increase ever and the largest in history if you exclude 2 coronavirus lockdown panic months in March and April 2020. Bond fund assets increased $3.2 billion to $4.783 trillion, and bond ETF assets inched lower but remained above the $1.5 trillion level (after passing it for the first time ever the month prior).
MMFs have increased by $1.190 trillion, or 24.4%, over the past 12 months (according to ICI's Trends through 2/29). Money funds' February asset increase follows an increase of $82.4 billion in January, $34.9 billion in December, $213.9 billion in November, a decrease of $13.6 billion in October and gains of $74.1 billion in September, $123.9 billion in August $31.4 billion in July, $30.6 billion in June, $172.7 billion in May, $8.4 billion in April, $371.0 billion in March, $60.0 billion in February and $31.5 billion in January. Money fund assets surpassed bond fund assets in September 2022 for the first time since 2010 and they continued to hold a sizeable lead last month. (The bond fund totals don't include bond ETFs, which total $1.509 trillion as of 2/29, according to ICI.)
ICI's monthly release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased $720.68 billion, or 2.8 percent, to $26.38 trillion in February, according to the Investment Company Institute's official survey of the mutual fund industry. In the survey, mutual fund companies report actual assets, sales, and redemptions to ICI.... Bond funds had an inflow of $37.71 billion in February, compared with an inflow of $32.65 billion in January.... Money market funds had an inflow of $38.16 billion in February, compared with an inflow of $61.50 billion in January. In January funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $26.00 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $12.15 billion."
The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable MMFs were higher while Tax Exempt MMFs were unchanged last month. Taxable MMFs increased by $55.0 billion in February to $5.938 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs remain at $119.1 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $1.184 trillion (24.9%), and Tax-Exempt funds rose by $5.6 billion over the past year (4.9%). Bond fund assets increased by $3.2 billion (after increasing $34.5 billion in January) to $4.783 trillion; they've increased by $214.8 billion (4.7%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 23.0% of all mutual fund assets (down 0.4% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 18.1%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 272, down 2 from the prior month and down from 281 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 227 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 45 funds.
ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirms a jump in Treasuries and CDs last month. Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds increased last month; they moved up to the largest composition segment in February. Treasury holdings increased $186.3 billion, or 8.4%, to $2.410 trillion, or 40.6% of holdings. Treasury securities have increased by $1.457 billion, or 153.0%, over the past 12 months. (See our Mar. 12 News, "March MF Portfolio Holdings Show Another Treasury Jump, Repo Plunge.")
Repurchase Agreements dropped down to the second largest composition segment in February having decreased $138.6 billion, or -5.9%, to $2.230 trillion, or 37.6% of holdings. Repo holdings have decreased $517.6 billion, or -18.8%, over the past year. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they decreased $13.0 billion, or -1.8%, to $690.7 billion, or 11.6% of holdings. Agency holdings have increased by $152.1 billion, or 28.2%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) remained in fourth place; they increased by $5.5 billion, or 1.6%, to $349.2 billion (5.9% of assets). CDs held by money funds rose by $95.2 billion, or 37.5%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper remained in fifth place, up $5.5 billion, or 2.2%, to $255.8 billion (4.3% of assets). CP increased $56.8 billion, or 28.6%, over one year. Other holdings decreased to $20.5 billion (0.3% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) decreased to $4.2 billion (0.1% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased to 65.940 million, while the Number of Funds was down 2 at 227. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 6.027 million and the number of funds decreased by 5. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 40 days, up 3 from January. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have increased by 26.
