ICI: MMFs Fall Back to $6.65 Trillion
ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money funds falling $22.2 billion to $6.648 trillion in the latest week, after surging $81.6 billion to a record high of $6.667 trillion the week prior. Assets have still risen in 12 of the last 16, and 23 of the last 31 weeks, increasing by $344.9 billion (or 5.5%) since the Fed cut on 9/18 and increasing by $671.0 billion (or 11.2%) since April 24. MMF assets are up by $762 billion, or 16.1%, year-to-date in 2024 (through 11/20/24), with Institutional MMFs up $381 billion, or 12.5% and Retail MMFs up $381 billion, or 22.7%. Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen by $885 billion, or 15.4%, with Retail MMFs up by $427 billion (19.0%) and Inst MMFs rising by $458 billion (13.0%). ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $22.21 billion to $6.65 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, November 20, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $24.62 billion and prime funds increased by $538 million. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $1.87 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs decreasing $31.0 billion and Retail MMFs rising $8.7 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $5.446 trillion (81.9% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.066 trillion (16.0%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $136.7 billion (2.1%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $8.73 billion to $2.67 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $4.25 billion to $1.70 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $3.07 billion to $846.47 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.42 billion to $124.34 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 40.2%, and Government Retail assets make up 63.7% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $30.95 billion to $3.98 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $28.87 billion to $3.75 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $2.53 billion to $219.24 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $449 million to $12.39 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 59.8% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 94.2% of all institutional MMF totals. According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have risen by $143.1 billion in November through 11/20 to $7.006 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 $340 billion lower than Crane's asset series.
