ICI: MMF Assets Surge to Record
ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money funds skyrocketing by $79.5 billion to a new record of $6.585 trillion in the latest week. Assets have risen in 11 of the last 14, and 22 of the last 29 weeks, increasing by $281.9 billion (or 4.5%) since the Fed cut on 9/18 and increasing by $608.0 billion (or 10.2%) since April 24. MMF assets are up by $699 billion, or 14.8%, year-to-date in 2024 (through 11/6/24), with Institutional MMFs up $333 billion, or 10.9% and Retail MMFs up $366 billion, or 21.8%. Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen by $873 billion, or 15.3%, with Retail MMFs up by $436 billion (19.7%) and Inst MMFs rising by $437 billion (12.6%). ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $79.49 billion to $6.59 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, November 6, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $69.51 billion and prime funds increased by $6.74 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $3.25 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $50.3 billion and Retail MMFs rising $29.2 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $5.384 trillion (81.7% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.065 trillion (16.2%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $136.8 billion (2.1%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $29.18 billion to $2.66 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $19.40 billion to $1.69 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $7.22 billion to $842.71 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $2.55 billion to $124.65 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 40.3%, and Government Retail assets make up 63.6% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $50.31 billion to $3.93 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $50.10 billion to $3.69 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $486 million to $222.39 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $694 million to $12.19 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 59.7% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 94.0% of all institutional MMF totals. According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets broke over the $6.9 trillion level Tuesday, and have risen by $55.9 billion in November through 11/6 to $6.918 trillion. Assets rose by $97.5 billion in October, $149.8 billion in September, $109.7 billion in August, $16.6 billion in July, $15.7 billion in June and $91.4 billion in May. They declined by $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 last November. Note that ICI's asset totals don't include a number of funds tracked by the SEC and Crane Data, so they're about $350 billion lower than Crane's asset series.
