MMFs Fall Again After Record Drop
The Investment Company Institute published its weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report Thursday, which shows money fund assets falling by $5.6 billion to $7.637 trillion, after the biggest weekly drop in history, $175.8 billion, driven by huge April 15 tax-day outflows. (The second largest drop ever was $125.4 billion during the week ended April 16, 2025; the third largest was $121.3 billion the week of Sept. 17, 2008; and the fourth largest was $112.0 billion the week ended April 17, 2024.) Assets hit a record high $7.856 trillion five weeks ago. MMFs have risen in 23 of the last 31 weeks and 31 of the past 40 weeks. MMF assets are up by $725 billion, or 10.5%, over the past 52 weeks (through 4/22/26), with Institutional MMFs up $509 billion, or 12.5% and Retail MMFs up $216 billion, or 7.6%. Year-to-date in 2026, MMF assets are down by $96 billion, or -1.2%, with Institutional MMFs down $88 billion, or -1.9% and Retail MMFs down $8 billion, or -0.3%. ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $5.56 billion to $7.64 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, April 22, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $4.26 billion and prime funds decreased by $2.65 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $1.35 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs decreasing $1.5 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $4.0 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $6.269 trillion (82.1% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.226 trillion (16.1%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $142.4 billion (1.9%). It explains, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $4.02 billion to $3.07 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $2.33 billion to $1.95 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $2.73 billion to $986.53 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.05 billion to $130.08 billion." Retail assets account for 40.2% of the total, and Government Retail assets make up 63.6% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $1.54 billion to $4.57 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $1.92 billion to $4.32 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $82 million to $239.52 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $302 million to $12.36 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 59.8% 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 decreased by $121.1 billion to $8.071 trillion month-to-date in April (as of 4/22), assets hit a record high on March 18 of $8.280 trillion. (Our asset series previous record high, $8.276 trillion, was set on 3/17/26.) Assets decreased by $49.3 billion in March, increased $99.5 billion in February, $32.9 billion in January, $126.3 billion in December, $132.8 billion in November, $142.1 billion in October, $105.2 billion in September and $132.0 billion in August. They rose $63.7 billion in July, $6.7 billion in June and $100.9 billion in May, but fell by $24.4 billion last April. Note that ICI's asset totals don't include a number of funds tracked by the SEC and Crane Data, so they're almost $400 billion lower than Crane's asset series.
