ICI's latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing: September 2011," as well as its latest weekly "Money Market Mutual Fund" series, show money fund assets were relatively flat in the latest month and week. The mutual fund trade association also released its latest "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Market Funds statistics. ICI's September composition statistics showed a decline in Repos and CDs, and an increase in Treasury securities.
The Institute's weekly money fund release says, "Total money market mutual fund assets decreased by $20 million to $2.634 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, October 26, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Taxable government funds increased by $6.43 billion, taxable non-government funds decreased by $4.63 billion, and tax-exempt funds decreased by $1.82 billion." Month-to-date in October (through 10/26), Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence Daily shows that assets are unchanged, while year-to-date money fund assets are down by $176 billion, or 6.3%.
ICI continues, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $6.80 billion to $937.38 billion. Taxable government money market fund assets in the retail category decreased by $500 million to $197.93 billion, taxable non-government money market fund assets decreased by $5.30 billion to $546.94 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $1.00 billion to $192.52 billion. Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $6.78 billion to $1.697 trillion. Among institutional funds, taxable government money market fund assets increased by $6.93 billion to $697.79 billion, taxable non-government money market fund assets increased by $680 million to $904.83 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $820 million to $94.39 billion."
The ICI monthly report says, "The combined assets of the nation’s mutual funds decreased by $582.3 billion, or 5.0 percent, to $11.040 trillion in September.... In the survey, mutual fund companies report actual assets, sales, and redemptions to ICI. Long-term funds -- stock, bond, and hybrid funds -- had a net outflow of $2.11 billion in September, versus an outflow of $36.20 billion in August. A $12.81 billion outflow from stock funds was largely offset by inflows to bond and hybrid funds. Money market funds had an outflow of $10.81 billion in September, compared with an inflow of $71.75 billion in August. Funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $5.09 billion. Funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $5.72 billion."
The statistics show total money fund assets at $2.630 trillion as of Sept. 30, which represents 23.8% of all mutual fund assets. ICI's "Net New Cash Flow" figures show money fund assets with an outflow of $10.8 billion in Sept. vs. an inflow of $71.8 billion in August. ICI's flows show outflows of $183.0 billion YTD 2011 vs. an outflow of $528.7 billion YTD in 2010 through Sept. ICI's survey tracks 432 taxable and 209 tax-free money funds (641 total) vs. 449 taxable and 217 tax-free money funds a year earlier (666 total).
ICI's separate "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Market Funds" shows that Repurchase Agreements (Repo), the largest holdings of taxable money funds, decreased by $21.0 billion to $490.2 billion, or 20.9%. Certificates of Deposits continued their decline in September (down $18.1 billion, or 3.6%), dropping dropping to $480.4 billion, or 20.5%. (Eurodollar CDs, which we include in the above total, represent $88.7 billion, or 18.5% of all CDs, and they accounted for $7.4 billion of the drop in July.)
U.S. Government Agency Securities remain the third-largest holdings segment at 16.7%, or $392.1 billion; they increased $16.1 billion, or 4.3%, in September. Commercial Paper (CP) holdings, which remain in fourth place, decreased by $10.0 billion, or 2.7%, to $358.2 billion. ICI's numbers show Average Maturities remaining steady at 39 days in September, while the number of shareholder accounts outstanding fell to 27.00 million.
