ICI released its November 2012 asset flow and portfolio composition data yesterday, which verified that money fund assets and repo holdings surged in November. (See Crane Data's Dec. 17 news on the continued surge in repos, "Latest Money Fund Portfolio Holdings Show Yet More Repo, CDs Jump.") Money funds will likely show continued asset increases in December too, according to Crane Data's MFI Daily (which shows an increase of $34.3 billion month-to-date). ICI's "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing: November 2012" shows that money market mutual fund assets jumped by $68.6 billion last month. ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Market Funds shows Repurchase Agreements surging again in November while Commercial Paper and Treasury holdings also jumped.
ICI's November "Trends" says, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $161.2 billion, or 1.3 percent, to $12.872 trillion in November, 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.... Bond funds had an inflow of $23.70 billion in November, compared with an inflow of $34.52 billion in October.... Money market funds had an inflow of $68.28 billion in November, compared with an outflow of $3.54 billion in October. Funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $52.61 billion. Funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $15.67 billion."
MTD through December 27, assets have increased by $34.3 billion, according to Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence Daily. Surprisingly, the increase has been driven by (taxable) Retail assets, which have increased by $19.0 billion, and by Tax Exempt assets, which have increased by $12.8 billion. Institutional assets have grown by just $2.49 billion and Prime Institutional funds have actually seen declines in December, down $4.4 billion. Treasury Institutional money funds have grown by $5.9 billion, likely a reflection of investors moving cash ahead of the expected year-end expiration of the "TAG" unlimited FDIC insurance program.
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Mutual Fund Assets" also shows assets jumping in the latest week and for the 6th week out of the past eight. It says, "Total money market mutual fund assets increased by $28.39 billion to $2.665 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, December 26, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Taxable government funds increased by $12.53 billion, taxable non-government funds increased by $11.58 billion, and tax-exempt funds increased by $4.28 billion."
ICI's Portfolio Holdings for November 2012 show Repurchase Agreements jumping sharply. Repos hit another record level in November, solidifying their position as the largest portfolio holding among taxable money funds with 26.8% of assets and $629.8 billion (up $26.0 billion in November after surging $80.5 billion in Oct.). Treasury Bills & Securities remained the second largest segment at 19.5%; holdings in T-Bills and other Treasuries rose by $8.5 billion to $457.7 billion. Holdings of Certificates of Deposits, which rank third among portfolio holdings, increased by $11.5 billion to $426.9 billion (18.2%).
Commercial Paper remained in the fourth largest spot ahead of U.S. Government Agency Securities; CP rose by $16.4 billion to $331.3 billion (14.1% of assets) but Agencies fell by $3.3 billion to $310.5 billion (13.2% of taxable assets). Notes (including Corporate and Bank) fell by $2.8 billion to $94.9 billion (4.0% of assets), and Other holdings accounted for 3.7% ($86.2 billion).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's Holdings series for taxable money funds decreased by 2,790 to 24.389 million, while the Number of Funds remained at 405. The Average Maturity of Portfolios rose by one day to 50 days in November. Since November 2011, WAMs of Taxable money funds have lengthened by 8 days. (Note that the archived version of our Money Fund Intelligence XLS monthly spreadsheet -- see our Content Page to download -- now has Portfolio Composition and Maturity Distribution totals updated as of Nov. 30, 2012. We revise these following the monthly publication of our final Money Fund Portfolio Holdings data.)
