ICI's latest monthly asset flow numbers verify that money fund assets increased in July 2012. The latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing: July 2012" showed that money market mutual fund assets rose by $35.2 billion in July to $2.549 trillion. Money fund assets still account for 20.7% of overall mutual fund assets. Bond fund assets again surged higher, rising by $73.7 billion to $3.243 trillion, or 26.3% of assets. ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Market Funds shows Repurchase Agreements continuing to surge in July and Government Agencies continues to decline.
ICI's July "Trends" says, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $161.5 billion, or 1.3 percent, to $12.338 trillion in July, 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 $34.69 billion in July, compared with an outflow of $46.40 billion in June. Funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $33.40 billion. Funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $1.29 billion."
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Mutual Funds Assets" says, "Total money market mutual fund assets decreased by $2.55 billion to $2.571 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, August 29, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Taxable government funds increased by $3.96 billion, taxable non-government funds decreased by $3.76 billion, and tax-exempt funds decreased by $2.75 billion. ."
In August, month-to-date through 8/29, assets have increased by another $20.6 billion, according to Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence Daily. YTD, we show asset declines of $117.8 billion, or 4.6%. Our daily series shows the rebound in Prime Institutional funds continued in August; they've regained $22.8 billion month-to-date.
ICI's Portfolio Holdings series shows Repurchase Agreements jumped in July after falling in June (and rising in April and May). Repos remain the largest portfolio holding among taxable money funds with 25.0% of assets. Treasury Bills & Securities remained the second largest segment at 19.2%; holdings in T-Bills and other Treasuries rose by $313 million to $454.2 billion. Holdings of Certificates of Deposits, which rank third among portfolio holdings, increased by $4.2 billion to $394.0 billion (17.3%).
U.S. Government Agency Securities fell by $13.5 billion and dropped into fifth place among taxable money fund portfolio holdings with $328.0 billion, or 14.4% of assets. Commercial Paper inched higher by $1.3 billion to $334.5 billion, which bumped CP up to the fourth largest composition sector with 14.7% of assets. Notes (including Corporate and Bank) accounted for 5.3% of assets ($120.6 billion), while Other holdings accounted for 3.5% ($80.2 billion).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's Holdings series for taxable money funds decreased to 25.25 million from 25.26 million the month before, while the Number of Funds grew by 2 to 415. The Average Maturity of Portfolios shortened by one day to 45 days in July. (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 July 31, 2012. We revise these following the monthly publication of our Money Fund Portfolio Holdings data.)
Finally, Fitch writes in a separate survey of July holdings ("U.S. Money Fund Exposure and European Banks: Shift to Japan Continues"), "U.S. prime money market funds (MMF) continued to increase their exposure to Japanese banks, which as of end-July represent 12.3% of total MMF holdings or a 118% increase on a dollar basis since end-May 2011.... This exposure exceeds aggregate MMF allocations to eurozone banks, which increased moderately since the prior reporting period and now constitute 8.5% of total MMF assets, still 76% below end-May 2011 levels on a dollar basis. This "disengagement" between MMFs and eurozone banks appears to be persisting, as MMF risk aversion continues and both eurozone banks and their regulators seem cautious towards this potentially volatile form of funding. Aggregate MMF allocations to European banks outside of the eurozone also grew with allocations to Nordic, Swiss, and U.K. banks all rising since end-June on a dollar basis. Outside of Europe, MMF allocations to Canadian banks declined slightly, while exposures to Australian banks remained constant over the same period."
