ICI: MMF Assets Pause Record Run
ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money funds inching lower by $0.4 billion to $6.771 trillion in the latest week, after jumping $95.9 billion to a record $6.771 trillion the previous week. Money fund assets have risen in 14 of the last 19, and 25 of the last 34, weeks, increasing by $467.1 billion (or 7.4%) since the Fed cut on 9/18 and increasing by $793.4 billion (or 13.3%) since April 24. MMF assets are up by $884 billion, or 18.7%, year-to-date in 2024 (through 12/11/24), with Institutional MMFs up $482 billion, or 15.8% and Retail MMFs up $402 billion, or 24.0%. Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen by $884 billion, or 15.0%, with Retail MMFs up by $425 billion (18.8%) and Inst MMFs rising by $459 billion (12.7%). ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $451 million to $6.77 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, December 11, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $2.18 billion and prime funds increased by $1.23 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $3.86 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $0.7 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $1.2 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $5.563 trillion (82.2% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.075 trillion (15.9%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $133.3 billion (2.0%). It explains, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $1.16 billion to $2.69 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $774 million to $1.72 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.29 billion to $854.81 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $2.67 billion to $121.72 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 39.8%, and Government Retail assets make up 63.7% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $705 million to $4.08 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $2.95 billion to $3.85 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.06 billion to $219.82 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $1.18 billion to $11.53 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 60.2% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 94.3% of all institutional MMF totals. According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have risen by $47.4 billion in December through 12/11 to $7.110 trillion. On December 5, assets hit an all-time high of $7.124 trillion. But they've inched lower since. Assets rose by $200.5 trillion in November, $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 and $32.7 billion last December. 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.
