ICI published its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report, as well as its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing - April 2025" and "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" on Thursday. The weekly series shows money fund assets falling $19.8 billion to $6.949 trillion, after rising $27.7 billion the week prior. Money fund assets remain just below record levels; they've increased by $645.3 billion (or 10.2%) since the Fed last cut rates on 9/18/24 and increasing by $971.4 billion (or 16.3%) since 4/24/24. MMF assets are up by $879 billion, or 14.5%, in the past 52 weeks (through 5/28/25), with Institutional MMFs up $443 billion, or 12.2% and Retail MMFs up $437 billion, or 17.9%. Year-to-date, MMF assets are up by just $98 billion, or 1.4%, with Institutional MMFs down $37 billion, or -0.9% and Retail MMFs up $135 billion, or 4.9%. (Note: Register and make hotel reservations soon for our upcoming Crane's Money Fund Symposium, which is June 23-25. We hope to see you next month in Boston!)
ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $19.80 billion to $6.95 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, May 28.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $17.74 billion and prime funds decreased by $2.85 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $784 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs decreasing $18.3 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $1.5 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $5.660 trillion (81.5% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.147 trillion (16.5%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $141.4 billion (2.0%).
It explains, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $1.49 billion to $2.87 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $2.81 billion to $1.81 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $628 million to $933.92 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $692 million to $128.97 billion." Retail assets account for well over a third of total assets, or 41.3%, and Government Retail assets make up 63.0% of all Retail MMFs.
They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $18.31 billion to $4.08 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $14.93 billion to $3.85 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $3.48 billion to $213.12 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $92 million to $12.49 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 58.7% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 94.5% of all institutional MMF totals.
According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have increased by $44.3 billion in May (through 5/28/25) to $7.344 trillion, last month assets hit a record high of $7.384 trillion on April 3. Assets fell by $24.4 billion in April, they rose $2.8 trillion in March, $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 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.
ICI's monthly Trends shows money fund totals declining $63.8 billion, or -0.9%, in April to $6.911 trillion. MMFs have increased by $922.9 billion, or 15.4%, over the past 12 months (through 4/30/25). Money funds' April asset decrease follows a decrease of $10.9 billion in March, an increase of $99.0 billion in February, $31.9 billion in January and $139.3 billion in December. They rose $171.5 billion in November, $117.4 billion in October and $158.6 billion in September. Bond fund assets decreased $58.3 billion to $5.120 trillion, and bond ETF assets increased to $1.90 trillion in April 2025.
The monthly release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds decreased by $184.63 billion, or 0.7 percent, to $27.97 trillion in April, according to the Investment Company Institute's official survey of the mutual fund industry. In the survey, mutual fund companies report actual assets, sales, and redemptions to ICI.... Bond funds had an outflow of $65.47 billion in April, compared with an outflow of $7.55 billion in March.... Money market funds had an outflow of $79.14 billion in April, compared with an outflow of $19.94 billion in March. In April funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $53.43 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $25.71 billion."
The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable MMFs were lower from last month while Tax Exempt MMFs were higher. Taxable MMFs decreased by $68.5 billion in April to $6.770 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs increased $4.7 billion to $140.7 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $907.4 billion (15.5%), and Tax-Exempt funds rose by $15.5 billion over the past year (12.4%). Bond fund assets decreased by $58.3 billion (after decreasing by $33.3 billion in March) to $5.120 trillion; they've increased by $349.6 billion (7.3%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 24.7% of all mutual fund assets (down 0.1% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 18.3%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 263, down 1 from the prior month and down from 276 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 222 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 41 funds.
ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirms a jump in Repo and a drop in Treasuries last month. Repurchase Agreements once again became the largest composition segment last month, increasing $12.6 billion, or 0.5%, to $2.659 trillion, or 39.3% of holdings. Repo holdings have increased $330.9 billion, or 14.2%, over the past year. (See our May 12 News, "May Money Fund Portfolio Holdings: FICC Repo Hits $1T, T-Bills Drop.”)
Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds fell down to the second largest composition segment last month; they decreased $175.7 billion, or -6.5%, to $2.547 trillion, or 37.6% of holdings. Treasury securities have increased by $302.4 billion, or 13.5%, over the past 12 months. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they increased $60.1 billion, or 7.1%, to $907.2 billion, or 13.4% of holdings. Agency holdings have increased by $231.0 billion, or 34.2%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) were in fourth place, down $5.6 billion, or -1.8%, to $308.5 billion (4.6% of assets). CDs decreased $28.3 billion, or -8.4%, over one year. Commercial Paper was in fifth place; they decreased by $9.6 billion, or -3.2%, to $291.2 billion (4.3% of assets). CP held by money funds rose by $50.8 billion, or 21.1%, over 12 months. Other holdings decreased to $20.1 billion (0.3% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) increased to $38.0 billion (0.6% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased to 78.888 million, while the Number of Funds was down 1 at 222. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 11.843 million and the number of funds decreased by 9. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 34 days, unchanged from March. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money are down 1 day.
