The Investment Company Institute published its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report and its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" for July 2024, as well as its monthly "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" Thursday. The former shows money market mutual fund assets jumping for the fourth week in a row (up $21.0 billion) to a record $6.263 trillion. Assets have risen in 15 of the last 19 weeks, increasing by $285.5 billion (or 4.8%) since April 24. MMF assets are up by $376 billion, or 8.0%, year-to-date in 2024 (through 8/28/24), with Institutional MMFs up $131 billion, or 4.3% and Retail MMFs up $245 billion, or 14.6%. Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen by $680 billion, or 12.2%, with Retail MMFs up by $447 billion (21.4%) and Inst MMFs rising by $232 billion (6.7%). (Note: Crane Data's separate and more comprehensive asset series shows money funds hitting a record $6.6 trillion this week!)
ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $21.05 billion to $6.26 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, August 28, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $21.14 billion and prime funds increased by $535 million. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $618 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs rising $17.9 billion and Retail MMFs rising $3.2 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $5.079 trillion (81.1% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.054 trillion (16.8%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $129.9 billion (2.1%).
ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $3.16 billion to $2.54 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $1.98 billion to $1.61 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $1.53 billion to $810.62 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $352 million to $118.53 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 40.5%, and Government Retail assets make up 63.4% of all Retail MMFs.
They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $17.89 billion to $3.73 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $19.15 billion to $3.47 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $996 million to $243.44 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $266 million to $11.33 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 59.5% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 93.2% of all institutional MMF totals.
According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have risen by $99.1 billion in August (through 8/28) to $6.604 trillion. They hit a record $6.613 trillion on 8/27 but fell slightly on 8/28. Assets rose by $16.6 billion in July, $15.7 billion in June and $91.4 billion in May, but they fell $15.8 billion in April and $68.8 billion in March. 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 and $98.3 billion last August. 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 $46.6 billion in July to $6.139 trillion. MMFs have increased by $657.3 billion, or 12.0%, over the past 12 months (according to ICI's Trends through 7/31). Money funds' July asset increase follows an increase of $13.0 billion in June, $90.9 billion in May, $4.3 billion in April, 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 and $123.9 billion last August. Bond fund assets increased $103.8 billion to $4.975 trillion, and bond ETF assets increased and still remain above the $1.5 trillion level (after passing it for the first time ever 7 months ago).
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 $1.657 trillion as of 7/31, according to ICI.)
ICI's monthly release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $388.84 billion, or 1.4 percent, to $27.48 trillion in July, 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 $13.67 billion in July, compared with an outflow of $6.06 billion in June.... Money market funds had an inflow of $26.37 billion in July, compared with an outflow of $6.53 billion in June. In July funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $2.50 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $28.87 billion."
The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable MMFs were higher while Tax Exempt MMFs were lower from last month. Taxable MMFs increased by $47.3 billion in July to $6.010 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs decreased $0.7 billion to $128.6 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $640.8 billion (11.9%), and Tax-Exempt funds rose by $16.5 billion over the past year (14.7%). Bond fund assets increased by $103.8 billion (after increasing by $38.2 billion in June) to $4.975 trillion; they've increased by $312.5 billion (6.7%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 22.3% of all mutual fund assets (down 0.2% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 18.1%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 275, down 1 from the prior month and down from 279 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 230 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 45 funds.
ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirms a drop in Repo last month. Repurchase Agreements remain the largest composition segment, decreasing $24.0 billion, or -1.0%, to $2.407 trillion, or 40.1% of holdings. Repo holdings have decreased $542.6 billion, or -18.4%, over the past year. (See our Aug. 12 News, "August Money Fund Portfolio Holdings: TDs, Treasuries Up; Repo Slides.")
Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds increased $40.7 billion, or 1.8%, to $2.316 trillion, or 38.5% of holdings. Treasury securities have increased by $979.9 billion, or 73.3%, over the past 12 months. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they increased $23.4 billion, or 3.4%, to $711.3 billion, or 11.8% of holdings. Agency holdings have increased by $98.3 billion, or 16.0%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) remained in fourth place; they increased by $52.9 billion, or 17.7%, to $351.7 billion (5.9% of assets). CDs held by money funds rose by $95.8 billion, or 37.4%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper remained in fifth place, up $6.9 billion, or 2.7%, to $260.0 billion (4.3% of assets). CP increased $60.5 billion, or 30.4%, over one year. Other holdings decreased to $16.6 billion (0.3% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) increased to $24.4 billion (0.4% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased to 70.574 million, while the Number of Funds was down 1 at 230. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 10.681 million and the number of funds decreased by 1. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 33 days, down 1 from June. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have increased by 10.
