The Investment Company Institute released its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report Thursday, which shows money fund assets falling $19.5 billion to $7.283 trillion. MMFs rose $43.8 billion last week to a record $7.303 trillion, and $52.4 billion the week before. MMF assets are up by $980 billion, or 15.5%, over the past 52 weeks (through 9/17/25), with Institutional MMFs up $584 billion, or 15.6% and Retail MMFs up $395 billion, or 15.4%. Year-to-date, MMF assets are up by $433 billion, or 6.3%, with Institutional MMFs up $208 billion, or 5.0% and Retail MMFs up $225 billion, or 8.2%. (Note: Safe travels to those of you headed to our European Money Fund Symposium next week in Dublin, Sept. 22-23! We look forward to seeing you in Ireland!)
ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $19.49 billion to $7.28 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, September 17, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $16.23 billion and prime funds decreased by $2.54 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $724 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs decreasing $14.4 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $5.1 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $5.940 trillion (81.6% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.207 trillion (16.6%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $137.0 billion (1.9%).
It explains, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $5.06 billion to $2.96 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $2.39 billion to $1.86 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $2.05 billion to $974.68 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $617 million to $124.52 billion." Retail assets account for 40.6% of the total, and Government Retail assets make up 62.9% of all Retail MMFs.
They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $14.44 billion to $4.32 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $13.85 billion to $4.08 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $481 million to $232.25 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $108 million to $12.43 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 59.4% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 94.1% of all institutional MMF totals.
According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets increased by $54.1 billion month-to-date in September (through 9/17/25) to $7.657 trillion. Assets increased by $132.0 billion in August, $63.7 billion in July, $6.7 billion in June and $100.9 billion in May. They fell by $24.4 billion in April, but rose $2.8 trillion in March, $94.2 billion in February and $52.8 billion in January. They jumped $110.9 billion in December, $200.5 billion in November, $97.5 billion in October and $149.8 billion last September. Note that ICI's asset totals don't include a number of funds tracked by the SEC and Crane Data, so they're almost $450 billion lower than Crane's asset series.
In related news, the ICI also published the release, "Retirement Assets Total $45.8 Trillion in Second Quarter 2025," which includes data tables showing that money market funds held in retirement accounts jumped to $966 billion (up from $936 billion) in the latest quarter, accounting for 14% of the total $7.024 trillion in money funds. MMFs represent just 6.8% of the total $14.1 trillion of mutual funds in retirement accounts.
This release says, "Total US retirement assets were $45.8 trillion as of June 30, 2025, up 6.0 percent from March. Retirement assets accounted for 34 percent of all household financial assets in the United States at the end of June 2025. Assets in individual retirement accounts (IRAs) totaled $18.0 trillion at the end of the second quarter of 2025, an increase of 7.0 percent from the end of the first quarter of 2025."
It continues, "Defined contribution (DC) plan assets were $13.0 trillion at the end of the second quarter, up 6.4 percent from March 31, 2025. Government defined benefit (DB) plans—including federal, state, and local government plans—held $9.3 trillion in assets as of the end of June 2025, a 4.9 percent increase from the end of March 2025. Private-sector DB plans held $3.0 trillion in assets at the end of the second quarter of 2025, and annuity reserves outside of retirement accounts accounted for another $2.5 trillion."
The ICI tables also show money funds accounting for $733 billion, or 11%, of the $6.924 trillion in IRA mutual fund assets and $233 billion, or 3%, of the $7.197 trillion in defined contribution plan holdings. (Money funds in 401k plans totaled $156 billion, or 3% of the $5.743 trillion of mutual funds in 401k's.)
Finally, Reuters writes, "DBS, Franklin Templeton, Ripple team up on tokenised money market fund trading." The piece explains, "DBS Group (DBSM.SI), opens new tab has partnered with U.S. asset manager Franklin Templeton (BEN.N), opens new tab and blockchain firm Ripple to offer accredited and institutional investors trading and lending services using tokenised money market funds and Ripple's U.S. dollar stablecoin."
It adds, "Under the agreement, Singapore's biggest lender said that it will list Franklin Templeton's sgBENJI token - the unit of the asset manager's tokenised U.S. dollar money market fund - on the DBS Digital Exchange alongside Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin."
