ICI: MMF Hit 6th Straight Record
The Investment Company Institute published its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report Thursday. ICI shows money market mutual fund assets jumping for the sixth week in a row (up $23.4 billion) to a record $6.324 trillion. Assets have risen in 17 of the last 21 weeks, increasing by $346.1 billion (or 5.8%) since April 24. MMF assets are up by $437 billion, or 9.2%, year-to-date in 2024 (through 9/11/24), with Institutional MMFs up $167 billion, or 5.5% and Retail MMFs up $270 billion, or 16.1%. Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen by $681 billion, or 12.1%, with Retail MMFs up by $444 billion (21.0%) and Inst MMFs rising by $237 billion (6.7%). ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $23.37 billion to $6.32 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, September 11.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $31.75 billion and prime funds decreased by $6.00 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $2.39 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs rising $17.2 billion and Retail MMFs rising $6.2 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $5.148 trillion (81.4% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.048 trillion (16.6%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $127.3 billion (2.0%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $6.21 billion to $2.56 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $4.43 billion to $1.62 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $3.33 billion to $818.84 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $1.55 billion to $116.82 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 40.5%, and Government Retail assets make up 63.5% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $17.15 billion to $3.76 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $27.32 billion to $3.52 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $9.33 billion to $229.60 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $841 million to $10.46 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 59.5% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 93.6% of all institutional MMF totals. According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have risen by $42.1 billion in September (through 9/11) to $6.657 trillion. They hit a record $6.682 trillion on 9/5 but have fallen slightly since. Assets rose by $109.7 billion in August, $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 and they rose $93.9 billion last September. 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.
