The Investment Company Institute released its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing: January 2012," which showed money market mutual fund assets declined by $35.6 billion to $2.6558 trillion last month. Money fund assets accounted for 22.0% of overall mutual fund assets, which broke back above the $12.0 trillion level, while bond funds accounted for 24.8% of assets ($2.992 trillion). Separately, ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Market Funds showed Taxable MMFs shifting into Repo and out of Agencies and CDs last month. They also extended maturities.
ICI's "Trends" says, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $440.8 billion, or 3.8 percent, to $12.062 trillion in January, 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 $36.35 billion in January, compared with an inflow of $38.43 billion in December. Funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $20.66 billion. Funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $15.69 billion."
Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence Daily shows money fund assets have declined by $8.0 billion in February month-to-date through 2/27/12. YTD through Monday, we show an overall assets decline of $40.58 billion, or 1.6%. Our daily series shows a shift from Government and Treasury Institutional money funds, which have lost $35.4 billion and $17.5 billion, respectively, and into Prime Institutional funds, which have gained $30.8 billion YTD through 2/27.
ICI's Portfolio Holdings series shows Repurchase Agreements jumped by $35.5 billion in January to $529.6 billion after plunging in December. Repos remain the largest portfolio holding among taxable money funds with 22.4% of assets, followed by Treasury Bills & Securities at 18.8% ($443.9 billion). Holdings of Certificates of Deposits, which rank third among portfolio holdings, fell by $19.4 billion to $412.1 billion (17.4%). U.S. Government Agency Securities saw holdings drop by $34.2 billion to $377.9 billion, or 16.0% of assets, while Commercial Paper rose by $11.2 billion, or 3.1%, to $373.7 billion (15.8% of assets). Notes (including Corporate and Bank) accounted for $5.7% of assets ($134.1 billion), while Other holdings accounted for 4.0% ($94.1 billion).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's Holdings series for taxable money funds dropped to 25.81 million from 26.29 million the month before, while the Number of Funds remained steady at 431. The Average Maturity of Portfolios lengthened to 44 days in January from 42 days in December. (Our Crane Money Fund Average currently shows a WAM of 42 days vs. one of 40 days at the start of the year, while our Crane 100 Money Fund Index shows a WAM of 44 days vs. a WAM of 41 days as of Dec. 31, 2011.)
Finally, note that the archived version of our Money Fund Intelligence XLS monthly spreadsheet (see our Content Page to download) now has its Portfolio Composition and Maturity Distribution totals updated as of Jan. 31, 2012. We've begun updated these towards month-end based on our monthly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings information, so will revise these fields late in the month.
