MMF Assets Fall on March 15 Taxes
ICI published its latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report on Thursday. The weekly series shows money fund assets falling $21.8 billion to $7.002 trillion, after falling $1.4 billion the week prior, but rising $51.2 billion two weeks prior. Money fund assets have risen in 22 of the last 33, and 33 of the last 48 weeks, increasing by $698.7 billion (or 11.1%) since the Fed cut on 9/18/24 and increasing by $1.025 trillion (or 17.1%) since 4/24/24. MMF assets are up by $956 billion, or 15.6%, in the past 52 weeks (through 3/19/25), with Institutional MMFs up $488 billion, or 13.1% and Retail MMFs up $467 billion, or 19.6%. Year-to-date, MMF assets are up by $152 billion, or 2.2%, with Institutional MMFs up $20 billion, or 0.5% and Retail MMFs up $132 billion, or 4.8%. ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $21.74 billion to $7.00 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, March 19... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $30.56 billion and prime funds increased by $5.39 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $3.43 billion.” ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs decreasing $30.7 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $9.0 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $5.735 trillion (81.9% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.134 trillion (16.2%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $134.1 billion (1.9%). ICI's release explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $8.96 billion to $2.87 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $417 million to $1.82 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $5.84 billion to $921.70 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $2.70 billion to $122.78 billion." Retail assets account for well over a third of total assets, or 40.9%, and Government Retail assets make up 63.6% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $30.71 billion to $4.14 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $30.98 billion to $3.91 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $455 million to $211.90 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $725 million to $11.30 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 59.1% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 94.6% of all institutional MMF totals. According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have risen by $18.1 billion in March through 3/19/25, hitting a record high $7.371 trillion last week (3/11). Assets rose by $94.2 billion in February, $52.8 billion in January, $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 2024. Note that ICI's asset totals don't include a number of funds tracked by the SEC and Crane Data, so they're over $330 billion lower than Crane's asset series.
