The Investment Company Institute's latest "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Market Funds data series shows that Repurchase Agreements (or Repo) fortified their position as the largest holding among money market mutual funds while Treasury securities surpassed Certificates of Deposit (CDs) to become the second largest segment in November. Repo holdings now account for $539.7 billion, or 22.8%, of the $2.369 trillion in Taxable money fund assets tracked by ICI; repo grew by $34.5 billion, or 6.8%, in November. Treasury Bills and Other Treasury Securities combined totalled $431.3 billion, or 18.2%. Treasuries increased by $18.7 billion, or 4.5%, moving them into the second largest holding spot ahead of CDs, which decreased by $14.0 billion to $423.1 billion, or 17.9%.
Year-to-date through November, CD holdings have decreased by a massive $147.8 billion, or 26.2%, while Treasury holdings in Taxable MMFs jumped by $89.2 billion, or 26.8%. Of course, a major portion of this shift was due to institutional investors' reallocation out of Prime money funds and into Treasury and Government funds. Through Nov. 30, Prime MMFs lost $185.6 billion, or 12.2% of assets while Treasury MMFs gained $82.9 billion, or 24.9%. Prime money funds shrunk from 65.3% of taxable assets at the start of the year to 60.3% last month, while Treasury MMFs grew from 14.3% to 18.7% of taxable assets.
U.S. Government Agency Securities ranked fourth among funds' portfolio compositions with a modest increase of $7.1 billion to $384.3 billion, or 16.2%, while Commercial Paper, the fifth-largest segment (and the largest prior to Nov. 2008), remained steady in November at $366.3 billion, or 15.5%. Notes, including Bank Notes ($34.9 billion) and Corporate Notes ($94.8 billion), totalled $129.6 billion, or 5.5% of assets while the Other category totals $90.1 billion (3.8%).
ICI's Holdings report also shows `Weighted Average Maturities (WAM) continuing to gradually extend, increasing to 42 days from 39 days two months ago. The Number of Accounts Outstanding in taxable money funds continues to wither, dropping to 26.667 million in November from 27.436 at the start of 2011. Watch for Crane Data's Dec. 31 Portfolio Composition and our new Maturity Breakout statistics in the pending January 2012 issue of our monthly Money Fund Intelligence XLS, which is scheduled to go out on Monday morning, and watch for our Dec. 31 Money Fund Portfolio Holdings reports, which are scheduled to be released to subscribers on Jan. 13.
