ICI's latest "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing, February 2014" shows that money fund assets decreased by $47.3 billion in February, after decreasing $10.5 billion in January and increasing $45.1 billion in December and $4.8 billion in November. For calendar 2013, ICI showed money fund assets up by $25.0 billion, or 0.9%. The Institute's February asset totals show an increase in both stock fund and bond fund assets; bond funds were up $37.8 billion after being up $28.5 billion in January and down $34.2 billion in Dec. and down $110.2 billion over the past year. (Bond fund assets declined by $124.4 billion in 2013.) ICI also released its latest "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds," which verified our reported drops in Government Agencies, CDs and Repos in February (and increase in Treasuries). (See Crane Data's March 13 News, "Treasury Holdings Rise, Agencies, CDs Drop in Feb., Fed Repos Jump.") Note ICI also modified its Fund Classification (category) scheme; watch for more details when its weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report comes out tomorrow.
ICI's February "Trends" says, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $429.2 billion, or 2.9 percent, to $15.23 trillion in February, 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 $7.67 billion in February, compared with an inflow of $1.18 billion in January. Taxable bond funds had an inflow of $6.13 billion in February, versus an inflow of $840 million in January. Municipal bond funds had an inflow of $1.55 billion in February, compared with an inflow of $344 million in January."
It adds, "Money market funds had an outflow of $46.71 billion in February, compared with an outflow of $9.40 billion in January. Funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $40.58 billion. Funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $6.13 billion." Money funds represent 17.5% of all mutual fund assets while bond funds represent 21.9%.
ICI's Portfolio Holdings for Feb. 2014 show that Holdings of Certificates of Deposits declined by $11.6 billion (after jumping by $48.4 billion in Jan. and falling $25.9 billion in Dec.) to $566.9 billion (23.7%), as CDs remained the largest composition segment. Repos declined by $11.6 billion, or 2.4%, (after declining by $16.5 billion in Jan. and rising $43.0 billion in Dec.) to $472.1 billion (19.7% of assets). Repo was the second largest segment of taxable money fund portfolio holdings according to ICI's data series. Treasury Bills & Securities, the third largest segment, showed an increase of $7.8 billion in Feb. (after a decrease of $43.8 billion in Jan.) to $460.5 billion (19.2%).
Commercial Paper, which increased by $2.0 billion, or 0.5%, remained the fourth largest segment just ahead of U.S. Government Agency Securities. CP holdings totaled $365.0 billion (15.3% of assets) while Agencies fell by $21.1 billion to $339.6 billion (14.2%). Notes (including Corporate and Bank) fell by $7.6 billion to $95.7 billion (4.0% of assets), and Other holdings rose by $479 million to $78.8 billion (3.3%).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's Holdings series for taxable money funds decreased by 156,596 to 23.746 million, while the Number of Funds remained flat at 381. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts fell by over 1.1 million and the number of funds declined by 18. The Average Maturity of Portfolios remained flat at 48 days in Jan. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money funds remain declined by one day.
Note: Crane Data has updated its March MFI XLS to reflect the 2/28/14 composition data and maturity breakouts for our entire fund universe. Note again too that we are now producing a "Holdings Reports Issuer Module," which allows subscribers to choose a series of Portfolio Holdings and Issuers and to see a full listing of which money funds own this paper. (Visit our Content Center and the latest Money Fund Portfolio Holdings download page to access the first version of this new file.)
