The Investment Company Institute's latest "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing: July 2011," confirms that July was indeed a very bad month for money market funds, as assets declined by $118.0 billion, or 4.4%. This represented over half of the overall year-to-date (through 7/31) asset decline of $235.8 billion, or 8.4%. (Note that money fund assets have rebounded by $68.4 billion, or 2.8%, month-to-date in August through 8/29, according to our Money Fund Intelligence Daily.)
ICI's monthly report says, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds decreased by $219.2 billion, or 1.8 percent, to $12.009 trillion in July, 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 $118.89 billion in July, compared with an outflow of $41.05 billion in June. Funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $125.92 billion. Funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $7.03 billion."
The statistics show total money fund assets at $2.568 trillion as of July 31, which represents 21.4% of all mutual fund assets. ICI's "Net New Cash Flow" figures show money fund assets with an outflow of $244.2 billion YTD 2011 vs. an outflow of $515.5 billion YTD in 2010 through July. ICI's survey tracks 433 taxable and 209 tax-free money funds (642 total) vs. 455 taxable and 221 tax-free money funds a year earlier (676 total).
ICI's separate "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Market Funds" shows that Certificates of Deposits showed the largest decline in July (down $42.5 billion, or 7.4%), but CDs remain the largest money fund allocation with $529.7 billion, or 23.3%. (Eurodollar CDs, which we include in the above total, represent $103.9 billion, or 19.6% of all CDs, and they accounted for $10.6 billion of the drop in July.)
Repurchase Agreement (Repo) holdings, the second largest holding of taxable money funds, increased slightly (up $1.7 billion) to $468.8 billion, or 20.7%, while holdings in the third-largest segment, Commercial Paper (CP) declined by $14.2 billion, or 3.9%, to $354.4 billion, or 15.6%. U.S. Government Agency Securities accounted for 15.2% of holdings, or $345.4 billion <b:>`_. Agency holdings fell by $21.4 billion, or 5.8%, in July. ICI also showed Average Maturities shortened to 40 day in July and the number of accounts outstanding fell to 27.07 million.
