The Investment Company Institute published its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report and its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" for August 2024, as well as its monthly "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" Thursday. The former shows money market mutual fund assets skyrocketing $120.8 billion -- the 6th largest weekly increase ever and the largest non-Covid or non-SVB related increase -- to a record $6.424 trillion. Assets have risen in 18 of the last 23 weeks, increasing by $446.9 billion (or 7.5%) since April 24. MMF assets are up by $538 billion, or 11.4%, year-to-date in 2024 (through 9/25/24), with Institutional MMFs up $255 billion, or 8.3% and Retail MMFs up $283 billion, or 16.9%. Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen by $780 billion, or 13.8%, with Retail MMFs up by $440 billion (20.6%) and Inst MMFs rising by $341 billion (9.7%). (Note: Crane Data's separate and more comprehensive asset series shows money funds hitting a record $6.766 trillion this week!)
ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $120.80 billion to $6.42 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, September 25, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $115.47 billion and prime funds increased by $4.85 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $485 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs rising $113.0 billion and Retail MMFs rising $7.8 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $5.245 trillion (81.6% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.051 trillion (16.4%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $129.0 billion (2.0%).
ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $7.80 billion to $2.57 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $5.74 billion to $1.63 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $1.54 billion to $821.10 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $515 million to $118.25 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 40.1%, and Government Retail assets make up 63.5% of all Retail MMFs.
They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $113.00 billion to $3.85 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $109.73 billion to $3.61 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $3.31 billion to $229.77 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $30 million to $10.75 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 59.9% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 93.8% of all institutional MMF totals.
According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have risen by $151.3 billion in September (through 9/25) to $6.766 trillion. MMF Assets are currently on a record-breaking run with a new record every day for the past 5 days. 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.
ICI's monthly Trends shows money fund totals rising $124.8 billion in August to $6.264 trillion. MMFs have increased by $657.0 billion, or 11.7%, over the past 12 months (according to ICI's Trends through 8/31). Money funds' August asset increase follows an increase of $46.6 billion in July, $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 last September. Bond fund assets increased $61.0 billion to $5.036 trillion, and bond ETF assets increased and still remain above the $1.5 trillion level (after passing it for the first time ever 8 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 $1.704 trillion as of 8/31, according to ICI.)
ICI's monthly release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $482.74 billion, or 1.8 percent, to $27.96 trillion in August, 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 $3.74 billion in August, compared with an inflow of $13.65 billion in July.... Money market funds had an inflow of $106.97 billion in August, compared with an inflow of $26.37 billion in July. In August funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $90.38 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $16.59 billion."
The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable MMFs and Tax Exempt MMFs were both higher from last month. Taxable MMFs increased by $124.5 billion in August to $6.135 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs increased $0.3 billion to $128.9 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $643.8 billion (11.7%), and Tax-Exempt funds rose by $13.1 billion over the past year (11.3%). Bond fund assets increased by $61.0 billion (after increasing by $103.8 billion in July) to $5.036 trillion; they've increased by $398.4 billion (8.6%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 22.4% of all mutual fund assets (up 0.1% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 18.0%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 268, down 7 from the prior month and down from 278 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 223 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 45 funds.
ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirms a drop in Repo last month. Repurchase Agreements fell to being the second the largest composition segment this past month, decreasing $36.3 billion, or -1.5%, to $2.371 trillion, or 38.7% of holdings. Repo holdings have decreased $469.0 billion, or -16.5%, over the past year. (See our Sept. 12 News, "September Money Fund Portfolio Holdings: Treasuries Jump; Repo Slides.")
Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds became the largest composition segment last month, they increased $91.3 billion, or 3.9%, to $2.408 trillion, or 39.2% of holdings. Treasury securities have increased by $903.0 billion, or 60.0%, over the past 12 months. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they increased $10.0 billion, or 1.4%, to $721.3 billion, or 11.8% of holdings. Agency holdings have increased by $83.7 billion, or 13.1%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) remained in fourth place; they decreased by $4.9 billion, or -1.4%, to $346.8 billion (5.7% of assets). CDs held by money funds rose by $53.2 billion, or 18.1%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper remained in fifth place, up $11.4 billion, or 4.4%, to $271.4 billion (4.4% of assets). CP increased $56.3 billion, or 26.2%, over one year. Other holdings increased to $18.6 billion (0.3% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) decreased to $23.9 billion (0.4% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased to 71.365 million, while the Number of Funds was down 7 at 223. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 10.634 million and the number of funds decreased by 7. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 33 days, unchanged from July. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have increased by 9.
