MMF Assets Up for 4th Straight Week
ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money market mutual fund assets rising for the fourth straight week, breaking back above $6.0 trillion 2 weeks ago. MMF assets are up by $162 billion, or 3.4%, year-to-date in 2024 (through 5/15/24), with Institutional MMFs up $26 billion, or 0.9% and Retail MMFs up $136 billion, or 8.1%. Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen by $707 billion, or 13.2%, with Retail MMFs rising by $474 billion (24.3%) and Inst MMFs rising by $233 billion (6.9%). The weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $16.36 billion to $6.05 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, May 15, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $17.23 billion and prime funds increased by $1.89 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $2.76 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $11.2 billion and Retail MMFs rising $5.2 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.894 trillion (80.9% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.028 trillion (17.0%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $126.3 billion (2.1%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $5.18 billion to $2.43 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $2.41 billion to $1.55 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $3.87 billion to $759.41 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $1.09 billion to $115.03 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 $11.18 billion to $3.62 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $14.82 billion to $3.34 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.98 billion to $268.62 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $1.67 billion to $11.29 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 59.9% 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 have risen by $62.9 billion in May (through 5/15) to $6.446 trillion. (They hit 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.
