MMF Assets Plummet on Tax Date
ICI published its latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report Thursday, which shows money fund assets falling $54.9 billion to $6.862 trillion, after surging $66.1 billion in the first week of the New Year to a record $6.916 trillion. Money fund assets have risen in 17 of the last 24, and 28 of the last 39, weeks, increasing by $558.0 billion (or 8.9%) since the Fed cut on 9/18/24 and increasing by $884.1 billion (or 14.8%) since 4/24/24. MMF assets are up by $901 billion, or 15.1%, in the past 52 weeks (through 1/15/25), with Institutional MMFs up $477 billion, or 13.1% and Retail MMFs up $424 billion, or 18.2%. Year-to-date, MMF assets are up by $11 billion, or 0.2%, with Institutional MMFs down $51 billion, or -1.2% and Retail MMFs up $23 billion, or 0.8%. ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $54.89 billion to $6.86 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, January 15, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $50.98 billion and prime funds decreased by $936 million. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $2.97 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs decreasing $55.0 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $0.1 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $5.633 trillion (82.1% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.093 trillion (15.9%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $136.0 billion (2.0%). It explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $59 million to $2.76 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $375 million to $1.76 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.72 billion to $876.19 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $3.04 billion to $124.24 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 $54.95 billion to $4.10 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $51.36 billion to $3.88 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $3.66 billion to $216.94 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $65 million to $11.73 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 59.8% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 94.4% of all institutional MMF totals. According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have risen by $10.2 billion in January through 1/15/25 to $7.235 trillion. (They hit a record high on 1/7 at $7.266 trillion before falling this past week.) Assets rose by $110.9 billion in December, $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 and $93.9 billion last January. 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.
