The Investment Company Institute published its latest weekly "Money Market Mutual Fund Assets" report, which says, "Total money market mutual fund assets increased by $24.62 billion to $2.807 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, October 27. The ICI also published its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing - September 2010," which shows that money fund assets declined by $30 billion in September, and ICI distributed (to subscribers only) its latest "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds," which shows that CDs retook the largest holding spot from Repo and that Average Maturities continued to extend in September.
ICI's weekly MMF statistics release says, "Taxable government funds increased by $12.32 billion, taxable non-government funds increased by $12.54 billion, and tax-exempt funds decreased by $250 million.... Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $3.01 billion to $942.31 billion. Taxable government money market fund assets in the retail category decreased by $460 million to $166.58 billion, taxable non-government money market fund assets decreased by $1.79 billion to $574.33 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $760 million to $201.41 billion.... Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $27.63 billion to $1.864 trillion. Among institutional funds, taxable government money market fund assets increased by $12.79 billion to $655.31 billion, taxable non-government money market fund assets increased by $14.33 billion to $1.085 trillion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $510 million to $123.74 billion.
The ICI's monthly series says, "Money market funds had an outflow of $32.34 billion in September, compared with an inflow of $19.07 billion in August. Funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $16.85 billion. Funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $15.49 billion." It also shows "Liquid Assets of Stock Funds remained at a record low of 3.5% in September.
ICI's Portfolio Composition series shows Taxable money fund holdings of Certificates of Deposits, including Eurodollar CDs, rose by $19.6 billion to $572.5 billion, or 23.2% of assets (the largest holding type). Holdings of Repurchase Agreements (Repo), which fell by $60.3 billion to $503.4 billion, or 20.4% of holdings, ranked second. Next was U.S. Government Agency Securities, which rose by $6.2 billion to $503.4 billion, or 20.4%, followed by Commercial Paper, which rose by $183 million to $394.4 billion, or 16.0% of taxable money fund holdings.
U.S. Treasury Bills and Securities were the fifth largest segment with $317.0 billion, or 12.8%. Notes, including Bank Notes (2.4%) and Corporate Notes (4.2%) made up another 6.6% of taxable MMF assets with $162.7 billion, while Other investments totalled $79.8 billion, or 3.8%. The Average Maturity of portfolios tracked by ICI extended to 44 days from 43 days the prior month and from 36 days three months ago. The number of taxable portfolios remained at 450 and the number of accounts outstanding dipped to 28.3 million.
In other news, Fitch Ratings released a statement entitled, "MMFs Ratings Remain Unaffected by Exposures to Citigroup and BofA". It says, "Fitch Ratings says today that Fitch-rated money market funds (MMFs) exposures to Citigroup and BofA remain moderate in terms of size and tenor and consistent with Fitch's 'AAAmmf' rating criteria. The agency has reviewed its universe of rated U.S. and European MMFs following its Oct. 22, 2010 rating actions placing the short-term 'F1+' ratings of Citigroup, Inc. (Citigroup) and Bank of America Corporation (BofA) on Rating Watch Negative. Subsequently, Fitch also placed seven asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) programs sponsored by the related banks on Rating Watch Negative, reflecting the programs' reliance on sponsor-provided liquidity and/or credit enhancement."
