The Investment Company Institute, the trade group representing mutual fund managers, released its latest weekly "Money Market Mutual Fund Assets" report and its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" for November 2011. ICI's weekly data shows money market mutual fund assets increasing for the 8th straight week; assets have now regained the declines in July related to the Treasury debt ceiling debate and they're now poised to retake the $2.7 trillion barrier, which they last saw in June 2011. Assets increased by $43 billion in November, according to ICI's monthly, and they've increased by $35.5 billion in December through Wednesday (12/28), according to Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence Daily. Below, we also discuss yesterday's name change of M&I's Marshall Money Market Funds to the new BMO Money Market Funds. (See also our Top 5 rankings above.)
ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market mutual fund assets increased by $2.57 billion to $2.695 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, December 28.... Taxable government funds increased by $6.00 billion, taxable non-government funds decreased by $3.64 billion, and tax-exempt funds increased by $210 million. Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $770 million to $938.93 billion.... Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $3.34 billion to $1.756 trillion. Among institutional funds, taxable government money market fund assets increased by $7.09 billion to $769.43 billion, taxable non-government money market fund assets decreased by $3.70 billion to $890.86 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $50 million to $95.62 billion."
The Institute's monthly release comments, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds decreased by $55.0 billion, or 0.5 percent, to $11.608 trillion in November.... Money market funds had an inflow of $43.19 billion in November, compared with an outflow of $21.87 billion in October. Funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $45.10 billion. Funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $1.91 billion." Year-to-date through Nov. 30, ICI shows money fund assets decreasing by $150.5 billion while bond fund assets have increased by $216.5 billion <b:>`_.
ICI's weekly series shows money fund assets down by $115 billion, or 4.1%, YTD in 2011, with Institutional assets, which account for 65.2% of the total, down by $109 billion, or 5.8%, and Retail assets down by just $5 billion, or 0.6%. Since hitting a recent low of $2.568 trillion the week ended August 3 (in the midst of the debt ceiling scare), money fund assets have rebounded by $127 billion. Treasury Institutional money funds, which now account for 12.9% of all assets, have gained $34.6 billion since Oct. 31 and Government Institutional MMFs, which now account for 14.6% of total assets, have gained $40.5 billion, according to MFI Daily.
Also yesterday, the Marshall Funds officially changed their name to the BMO Funds, reflecting M&I's (Marshall & Ilsley's) new parent company, the Bank of Montreal. An earlier SEC filing says, "On November 2, 2011, the Board of Directors of Marshall Funds, Inc. approved certain matters with respect to specific Funds. Those matters are described below with reference to the relevant Fund. In addition, the Board also approved resolutions which change the name of each Fund to delete the word "Marshall" and replace it with "BMO." The change in the name of each Fund listed above will be effective on or about December 29, 2011. The rebranding of the Funds is consistent with other actions taken by Bank of Montreal to consolidate its brand in the United States, including rebranding Harris N.A. and M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank as BMO Harris Bank N.A."
Marshall (now BMO) is the 36th largest manager of money funds (out of 77) with $4.69 billion in assets as of Nov. 30, according to our Money Fund Intelligence XLS. The name changes will appear on our pending January 2012 issue of Money Fund Intelligence and on tomorrow's MFI Daily (where they will be labelled as "Marshall (BMO)" temporarily). The funds currently tracked by Crane Data include: Marshall Govt MMkt Fund I (MGNXX), Marshall Govt MMkt Fund Y (MGYXX), Marshall Prime MMkt Fund A (MABXX), Marshall Prime MMkt Fund I (MAIXX), Marshall Prime MMkt Fund Y (MARXX), Marshall Tax-Free MMF I (MFIXX), and Marshall Tax-Free MMF Y (MTFXX).
