MMFs Surge to Record $6.111 Trillion
ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money market mutual fund assets rebounding sharply to a record $6.111 trillion in the latest week after declines the previous 2 weeks. MMF assets are up by $225 billion, or 4.7%, year-to-date in 2024 (through 4/4/24), with Institutional MMFs up $86 billion, or 2.8% and Retail MMFs up $139 billion, or 8.3%. Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen by $864 billion, or 16.5%, with Retail MMFs rising by $534 billion (28.2%) and Inst MMFs rising by $330 billion (9.9%). The weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $70.50 billion to $6.11 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, April 3, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $62.82 billion and prime funds increased by $4.93 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $2.76 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs jumping $45.2 billion and Retail MMFs jumping $25.3 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.958 trillion (81.1% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.029 trillion (16.8%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $124.0 billion (2.0%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $25.31 billion to $2.43 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $18.95 billion to $1.56 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $4.52 billion to $754.49 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.84 billion to $112.40 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 39.7%, and Government Retail assets make up 64.3% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $45.19 billion to $3.68 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $43.87 billion to $3.40 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $406 million to $274.40 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $918 million to $11.61 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 60.3% 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 risen by $125.3 billion in April (through 4/3) to $6.523 trillion (they were a record $6.538 trillion on 4/2). Assets fell $68.8 billion in March, but 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.
