Money Fund Assets Retake $6.0 Trillion
ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money market mutual fund assets rising again to retake the $6.0 trillion level, after falling sharply in mid-April due to tax payments. MMF assets are up by $115 billion, or 2.4%, year-to-date in 2024 (through 5/1/24), with Institutional MMFs down $8 billion, or -0.3% and Retail MMFs up $123 billion, or 7.3%. Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen by $691 billion, or 13.0%, with Retail MMFs rising by $488 billion (25.3%) and Inst MMFs rising by $204 billion (6.0%). The weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $23.62 billion to $6.00 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, May 1, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $21.33 billion and prime funds increased by $867 million. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $1.42 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $11.5 billion and Retail MMFs rising $12.1 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.857 trillion (80.9% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.018 trillion (17.0%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $126.3 billion (2.1%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $12.12 billion to $2.41 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $6.92 billion to $1.55 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $4.00 billion to $750.70 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.20 billion to $114.06 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 40.2%, and Government Retail assets make up 64.2% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $11.49 billion to $3.59 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $14.41 billion to $3.31 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $3.14 billion to $266.88 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $216 million to $12.24 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 59.8% 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 rose by $5.8 billion the first day of May (through 5/1) to $6.387 trillion. (A month prior, they were a record $6.538 trillion on 4/2.) Assets fell $15.8 billion in April and $68.8 billion in March. But they 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.
