The Investment Company Institute's latest weekly data show money market mutual fund assets rising. ICI's monthly series, as of April 30, 2011, also show assets inching higher, while the trade association's monthly portfolio holdings aggregates show a continued shift out of near-zero yielding repurchase agreements (repo) and into certificates of deposit (CDs). The weekly "Money Market Mutual Fund Assets" report says, "Total money market mutual fund assets increased by $9.56 billion to $2.748 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, May 25, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Taxable government funds increased by $3.96 billion, taxable non-government funds increased by $7.53 billion, and tax-exempt funds decreased by $1.94 billion."
ICI's weekly continues, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $90 million to $910.44 billion (33.1% of the total). Taxable government money market fund assets in the retail category decreased by $10 million to $168.31 billion (6.1% of total assets), taxable non-government money market fund assets increased by $660 million to $545.19 billion (19.8%), and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $560 million to $196.94 billion (7.2%). Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $9.47 billion to $1.837 trillion (66.9%). Among institutional funds, taxable government money market fund assets increased by $3.97 billion to $607.20 billion (22.1%), taxable non-government money market fund assets increased by $6.87 billion to $1.118 trillion (40.7% of all money fund assets), and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $1.38 billion to $112.08 billion (4.1%)."
ICI's "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing, April 2011" says, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $293.4 billion, or 2.4 percent, to $12.473 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.... Money market funds had an outflow of $3.58 billion in April, compared with an outflow of $14.62 billion in March. Funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $15.02 billion. Funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $18.60 billion." Overall money funds inched up by $0.9 billion in April to $2.728 trillion, representing 21.9% of all mutual fund assets.
The Investment Company Institute also distributes (to subscribers only) a "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Market Funds," which shows that CDs (including Eurodollar CDs) increased their lead as the largest money fund holding, rising $35.1 billion, or 6.1%, in April to $609.8 billion (25.2% of holdings). CDs have increased by $49.1 billion (8.8%) over 3 months. Repo remained the second largest holding at 18.1% ($437.7 billion), though these totals declined by $10.4 billion (2.3%) in April and have declined by $70.1 billion (13.8%) over the past 3 months.
Commercial Paper (CP) ranked third among taxable money fund holdings with $409.6 billion (16.9%), up $3.4 billion (0.8%) in the latest month and up $19.5 billion (5.0%) over the past 3 months. U.S Government Agency Securities were the 4th largest money fund holding according to ICI's series, with $366.9 billion, or 15.1% of assets. Agency holdings were down $14.1 billion (3.7%) in April and are down $11.1 billion (2.9%) over 3 months. U.S. Treasury Bills and Other Treasury Securities combined totalled $338.8 billion, or 14.0%, down $5.8 billion (1.7%) on the month, while Notes (both Corporate and Bank) holdings totalled $150.4 billion (6.2%). "Other" holdings made up the remaining 4.5%.
Crane Data's latest Money Fund Portfolio Holdings reports, a part of our Money Fund Wisdom service, also showed Certificates of Deposit as the largest holding among our taxable fund collection with 24.5% of all assets. Our Holdings collection uses the SEC's new categorization breakouts, which differ from ICI's. We show Treasury Debt as the second largest holding with 16.0% of assets, followed by Government Agency Debt with 15.0%. Financial Company Commercial Paper ranks 4th in our new Composition breakout with 10.1%. (Asset Backed Commercial Paper accounts for another 4.7% and Other Commercial Paper adds another 1.6%.)
Government Agency Repurchase Agreements make up 7.4% of our taxable asset totals, Other Repurchase Agreements make up 5.5%, and Treasury Repurchase Agreements make up 5.1%. Other Notes make up 3.7% of taxable assets, while Variable Rate Demand Notes total 2.9% in taxable funds (and total 9.99% of all investments when tax-free funds are included). Other Instruments (Time Deposit) total 1.7%, Other Instruments total 1.4%, Other Municipal Debt total 0.2%, Investment Companies total 0.14%, and Insurance Company Funding Agreements barely register with 0.02%. Unsurprisingly, Structured Investment Company Notes didn't appear in any of the portfolio holdings disclosures.
