The Investment Company Institute published its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report, as well as its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" and "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" for April 2024 Thursday. ICI's weekly shows money market mutual fund assets rising for the sixth straight week to $6.069 trillion, just $42 billion below their April 3 record of $6.111 trillion. MMF assets are up by $183 billion, or 3.9%, year-to-date in 2024 (through 5/29/24), with Institutional MMFs up $39 billion, or 1.3% and Retail MMFs up $144 billion, or 8.6%. Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen by $649 billion, or 12.0%, with Retail MMFs rising by $463 billion (23.5%) and Inst MMFs rising by $187 billion (5.4%). (Note: We're still taking registrations for our big Money Fund Symposium show in Pittsburgh June 12-14. We hope to see you there!)
The weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $3.80 billion to $6.07 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, May 29, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $3.60 billion and prime funds decreased by $105 million. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $311 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $1.9 billion and Retail MMFs rising $2.0 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.905 trillion (80.8% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.036 trillion (17.1%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $129.2 billion (2.1%).
ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $1.95 billion to $2.43 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $140 million to $1.55 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $1.25 billion to $765.14 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $563 million to $117.56 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 40.1%, and Government Retail assets make up 63.7% of all Retail MMFs.
They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $1.85 billion to $3.64 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $3.46 billion to $3.35 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.35 billion to $270.47 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $252 million to $11.65 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 59.9% 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 $88.0 billion in May (through 5/29) to $6.470 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.
ICI's monthly Trends shows money fund totals rising $4.3 billion in April to $5.988 trillion (after a drop in March and a jump in February, January, December and November, a decrease in October, and increases in September, August, July, June and May). 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 decreased $75.2 billion to $4.771 trillion, and bond ETF assets decreased and still remain above the $1.5 trillion level (after passing it for the first time ever 4 months ago).
MMFs have increased by $741.4 billion, or 14.1%, over the past 12 months (according to ICI's Trends through 4/30). Money funds' April asset increase follows a decrease of $73.0 billion in March, an increase of $55.1 billion in February, $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 $1.518 trillion as of 4/30, according to ICI.)
ICI's monthly release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds decreased by $768.09 billion, or 2.9 percent, to $26.05 trillion in April, 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 $8.13 billion in April, compared with an inflow of $26.63 billion in March.... Money market funds had an outflow of $14.91 billion in April, compared with an outflow of $89.33 billion in March. In April funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $2.69 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $12.22 billion."
The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable MMFs and Tax Exempt MMFs were both higher from last month. Taxable MMFs increased by $0.4 billion in April to $5.863 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs increased $3.9 billion to $125.2 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $723.9 billion (14.1%), and Tax-Exempt funds rose by $17.5 billion over the past year (16.2%). Bond fund assets decreased by $75.2 billion (after increasing $63.8 billion in March) to $4.771 trillion; they've increased by $118.4 billion (2.5%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 23.0% of all mutual fund assets (up 0.7% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 18.3%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 276, up 1 from the prior month and down from 280 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 231 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 45 funds.
ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirms a drop in Treasuries and CP last month. Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds decreased last month; they became the largest composition segment in February. In April they fell back to the 2nd largest, Treasury holdings decreased $138.8 billion, or -5.8%, to $2.244 trillion, or 38.3% of holdings. Treasury securities have increased by $1.280 trillion, or 132.6%, over the past 12 months. (See our May 10 News, "May Money Fund Portfolio Holdings: Repo Jumps to No. 1, T-Bills Plunge.")
Repurchase Agreements fell to become the second largest composition segment in February, but in April they regained the lead for largest segment, they increased $83.0 billion, or 3.7%, to $2.328 trillion, or 39.7% of holdings. Repo holdings have decreased $682.9 billion, or -22.7%, over the past year. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they increased $70 million, or 0.0%, to $676.3 billion, or 11.5% of holdings. Agency holdings have decreased by $47.8 billion, or -6.6%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) remained in fourth place; they increased by $20.7 billion, or 6.6%, to $336.8 billion (5.7% of assets). CDs held by money funds rose by $84.3 billion, or 33.4%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper remained in fifth place, down $9.9 billion, or -4.0%, to $240.4 billion (4.1% of assets). CP increased $65.4 billion, or 37.3%, over one year. Other holdings increased to $20.0 billion (0.3% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) increased to $4.7 billion (0.1% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased to 67.045 million, while the Number of Funds was up 1 at 231. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 9.097 million and the number of funds decreased by 1. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 35 days, down 4 from March. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have increased by 19.
