Though outflows have moderated following very heavy declines in the first four months of 2010 and the last six months of 2009, money funds continue to bleed assets. The latest weekly figures from the Investment Company Institute show money fund assets declining by $34.5 billion to $2.806 trillion. While three of the last six weeks have seen inflows into money funds -- their best inflow to outflow ratio since January 2009 -- assets have declined by $487 billion, or 14.8% year-to-date in 2010, a larger percentage decline than 2009's 14.0% (down $537 billion).
ICI's weekly report says, "Taxable government funds decreased by $7.69 billion, taxable non-government funds decreased by $26.22 billion, and tax-exempt funds decreased by $600 million.... Assets of retail money market funds increased by $180 million to $993.38 billion.... Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $34.69 billion to $1.813 trillion." Institutional money funds, which represent 65.8% of all assets, have declined by $413 billion, or 18.5%, YTD, while retail money funds have declined by just $74 billion, or 7.0%.
Prime institutional money funds remain the largest market segment with $1.014 trillion, or 36.1% of assets, followed by Government institutional money funds (including Treasury) with $695 billion, or 24.8%. Prime retail money funds are the third largest segment with $607 billion, or 21.6%; Tax-Exempt retail money funds are the fourth largest with $213 billion, or 7.6%; Government retail money funds are the fifth largest with $173 billion, or 6.2%; and Tax-Exempt institutional money funds are the smallest segment with $139 billion, or 5.0% of assets.
Money fund assets have declined by over $1.0 trillion since December 2008 and they've declined by $1.114 trillion since their record high of $3.920 trillion set on Jan. 14, 2009. Asset levels were last at their current $2.8 trillion level in September 2007, the official start of the "Subprime Liquidity Crisis." So money funds climbed by over $1 trillion, and then declined by over $1 trillion all in the space of less than three years. Over three full years, money fund assets actually remain up by $276 billion, or 11.2%, and they remain almost $1 trillion higher than their 2004 year-end level of $1.913 trillion.
