The Investment Company Institute published its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report Thursday, which shows money market mutual fund assets falling to $6.098 trillion, after rising for the previous 8 weeks. MMF assets are up by $212 billion, or 4.5%, year-to-date in 2024 (through 6/18/24), with Institutional MMFs up $45 billion, or 1.5% and Retail MMFs up $167 billion, or 9.9%. Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen by $665 billion, or 12.2%, with Retail MMFs rising by $463 billion (23.2%) and Inst MMFs rising by $202 billion (5.9%). (Note: Thank you to those who attended our Money Fund Symposium last week in Pittsburgh! Attendees and Crane Data subscribers may access the conference binder and materials via our "Money Fund Symposium 2024 Download Center.")
The weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $22.32 billion to $6.10 trillion for the six-day period ended Tuesday, June 18, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $21.45 billion and prime funds decreased by $177 million. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $692 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs decreasing $30.3 billion and Retail MMFs rising $8.0 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.925 trillion (80.8% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.046 trillion (17.1%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $128.0 billion (2.1%).
ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $7.98 billion to $2.46 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $6.57 billion to $1.57 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.08 billion to $773.87 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $669 million to $116.35 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 40.3%, and Government Retail assets make up 63.8% of all Retail MMFs.
They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $30.30 billion to $3.64 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $28.02 billion to $3.36 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $2.26 billion to $271.75 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $23 million to $11.63 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 59.7% 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 $7.3 billion in June (through 6/18) to $6.480 trillion. (They hit a record $6.538 trillion on 4/2, so our assets series has yet to reclaim record levels.) Assets rose by $91.4 billion in May, 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.
In related news, ICI also released its latest monthly "Money Market Fund Holdings" summary, which reviews the aggregate daily and weekly liquid assets, regional exposure, and maturities (WAM and WAL) for Prime and Government money market funds.
This release says, "The Investment Company Institute (ICI) reports that, as of the final Friday in May, prime money market funds held 45.7 percent of their portfolios in daily liquid assets and 62.5 percent in weekly liquid assets, while government money market funds held 77.6 percent of their portfolios in daily liquid assets and 87.7 percent in weekly liquid assets." Prime DLA was up from 45.3% in April, and Prime WLA was up from 60.7%. Govt MMFs' DLA was down from 77.9% and Govt WLA decreased from 87.9% the previous month.
ICI explains, "At the end of May, prime funds had a weighted average maturity (WAM) of 32 days and a weighted average life (WAL) of 50 days. Average WAMs and WALs are asset-weighted. Government money market funds had a WAM of 37 days and a WAL of 84 days." Prime WAMs were 1 day longer and WALs were 2 days longer from the previous month. Govt WAMs were unchanged and WALs were 1 day longer from April.
Regarding Holdings by Region of Issuer, the release tells us, "Prime money market funds' holdings attributable to the Americas declined from $511.01 billion in April to $496.98 billion in May. Government money market funds' holdings attributable to the Americas rose from $4,319.26 billion in April to $4,405.24 billion in May."
The Prime Money Market Funds by Region of Issuer table shows Americas-related holdings at $497.0 billion, or 48.7%; Asia and Pacific at $167.5 billion, or 16.4%; Europe at $338.5 billion, or 33.1%; and, Other (including Supranational) at $18.3 billion, or 1.9%. The Government Money Market Funds by Region of Issuer table shows Americas at $4.405 trillion, or 89.1%; Asia and Pacific at $135.0 billion, or 2.7%; Europe at $380.4 billion, 7.7%, and Other (Including Supranational) at $24.3 billion, or 0.5%.
Finally, ICI also recently published a release, "Retirement Assets Total $39.9 Trillion in First Quarter 2024." It includes data tables showing that money market funds held in retirement accounts jumped to a record $780 billion (up from $764 billion) in the latest quarter, accounting for 13% of the total $5.984 trillion in money funds. MMFs represent just 6.2% of the total $12.624 trillion of mutual funds in retirement accounts.
This release says, "Total US retirement assets were $39.9 trillion as of March 31, 2024, up 4.3 percent from December 2023. Retirement assets accounted for 33 percent of all household financial assets in the United States at the end of March 2024. Assets in individual retirement accounts (IRAs) totaled $14.3 trillion at the end of the first quarter of 2024, an increase of 5.5 percent from the end of the fourth quarter of 2023. Defined contribution (DC) plan assets were $11.1 trillion at the end of the first quarter, up 5.3 percent from December 31, 2023. Government defined benefit (DB) plans—including federal, state, and local government plans—held $8.7 trillion in assets as of the end of March 2024, a 2.0 percent increase from the end of December 2023. Private-sector DB plans held $3.3 trillion in assets at the end of the first quarter of 2024, and annuity reserves outside of retirement accounts accounted for another $2.4 trillion."
The ICI tables also show money funds accounting for $579 billion, or 9%, of the $6.204 trillion in IRA mutual fund assets and $201 billion, or 3%, of the $6.420 trillion in defined contribution plan holdings. (Money funds in 401k plans totaled $134 billion, or 3% of the $5.083 trillion of mutual funds in 401k's.)
