The latest monthly numbers from the Investment Company Institute verify that money fund assets were flat in May 2012 and the shift towards repurchase agreements continued. ICI's latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing: May 2012" showed that money market mutual fund assets rose by $1.7 billion in May (after falling $24 billion in April and $71 billion in March) to $2.560 trillion. Money fund assets now account for 21.4% of overall mutual fund assets. Bond fund assets continued their dizzying climb. After breaking over $3.0 trillion in March, assets grew $15.2 billion in May to $3.135 trillion, or 26.2% of assets. ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Market Funds showed continued growth in Repo holdings (up $14.0 billion); repurchase agreements now account for a full one-quarter of portfolio holdings.
ICI's latest "Trends" says, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds decreased by $469.3 billion, or 3.8 percent, to $11.962 trillion in May, 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 inflow of $2.01 billion in May, compared with an outflow of $24.04 billion in April. Funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $3.66 billion. Funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $1.65 billion."
Month-to-date through June 27, however, the outflows have resumed. Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence Daily shows money fund assets decreasing by $20.5 billion (down 0.8%). YTD, we show asset declines of $144.1 billion, or 5.6%. Our daily series shows `the declines concentrated in Prime Institutional funds in June; they've lost $22.4 billion, or 2.8%, month-to-date.
But ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Mutual Fund Assets" says, "Total money market mutual fund assets increased by $3.43 billion to $2.538 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, June 27, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Taxable government funds increased by $7.07 billion, taxable non-government funds decreased by $2.01 billion, and tax-exempt funds decreased by $1.64 billion."
ICI's Portfolio Holdings series shows Repurchase Agreements increased again in May after jumpinig in April (up $14.0 billion to $568.0 billion after rising $52.3 billion in April and falling $65.2 billion in March). Repos remain the largest portfolio holding among taxable money funds with 24.8% of assets. Treasury Bills & Securities remained the second largest segment at 18.9%, though these fell again by $14.4 billion (after falling $35.3 billion last month) to $432.9 billion. Holdings of Certificates of Deposits, which rank third among portfolio holdings, rebounded by $15.3 billion to $358.5 billion (15.7%).
Commercial Paper declined by $13.2 billion to $351.8 billion, but CP remained the fourth largest composition sector with 15.4% of taxable asset composition. U.S. Government Agency Securities holdings flatlined at $320.1 billion, or 14.0% of assets. Notes (including Corporate and Bank) accounted for 5.4% of assets ($123.5 billion), while Other holdings accounted for 3.9% ($89.6 billion).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's Holdings series for taxable money funds decreased to 25.44 million from 25.69 million the month before, while the Number of Funds remained flat at 417. The Average Maturity of Portfolios lengthened to 46 days in May from 45 days in April. 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 May 31, 2012. (We revise these following the monthly publication of our Money Fund Portfolio Holdings data.)
