ICI: Money Fund Assets Up Again
ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money market mutual fund assets rising for the third straight week, after retaking the $6.0 trillion level last week. MMF assets are up by $146 billion, or 3.1%, year-to-date in 2024 (through 5/8/24), with Institutional MMFs up $15 billion, or 0.5% and Retail MMFs up $131 billion, or 7.8%. Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen by $704 billion, or 13.2%, with Retail MMFs rising by $483 billion (25.0%) and Inst MMFs rising by $221 billion (6.5%). The weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $31.14 billion to $6.03 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, May 8, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $19.81 billion and prime funds increased by $8.55 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $2.77 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $23.3 billion and Retail MMFs rising $7.9 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.877 trillion (80.8% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.026 trillion (17.0%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $129.1 billion (2.1%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $7.87 billion to $2.42 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $974 million to $1.55 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $4.84 billion to $755.55 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $2.06 billion to $116.12 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 40.1%, and Government Retail assets make up 64.0% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $23.26 billion to $3.61 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $18.84 billion to $3.33 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $3.71 billion to $270.60 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $717 million to $12.96 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 59.9% 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 have rose by $50.2 billion in May (through 5/8) to $6.432 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.
