Money market mutual fund assets declined sharply following the April 15 tax payment date, as funds showed their 7th weekly decline in a row. ICI's latest "Money Market Mutual Fund Assets" says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $35.02 billion to $2.58 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, April 16, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, treasury funds (including agency and repo) decreased by $11.37 billion and prime funds decreased by $18.54 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $5.11 billion." Year-to-date, money fund assets have declined by $142 billion, or 5.2%.
ICI's weekly explains, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $5.33 billion to $912.96 billion. Treasury money market fund assets in the retail category decreased by $1.21 billion to $201.49 billion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.51 billion to $520.10 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $2.61 billion to $191.37 billion." Retail money fund assets account for 35.4% of all money fund assets with Prime Retail totaling 20.2%, Treasury (including agency and repo) totaling 7.8%, and Tax-exempt Retail totaling 7.4%.
It tells us, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $29.69 billion to $1.66 trillion. Among institutional funds, treasury money market fund assets decreased by $10.16 billion to $693.42 billion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $17.03 billion to $897.63 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $2.50 billion to $73.06 billion." Institutional money fund assets account for 64.6% of the total with Prime Inst totaling 34.8%, Treasury (and agency) totaling 26.9%, and Tax-exempt Inst totaling just 2.8%.
The report adds, "ICI reports money market fund assets to the Federal Reserve each week. Data for previous weeks reflect revisions due to data adjustments, reclassifications, and changes in the number of funds reporting. Weekly money market assets for the last 20 weeks are available on the ICI website."
Money fund assets have fallen noticeably in the first 5 months of the year the past 3 years, but they've recovered these declines in the second half of the year to end slightly positive in both 2012 and 2013. The drops in 2013 are slightly larger than the past two years (down $142 billion this year vs. down $110 billion through April 17 in 2013 and down $112 billion through April 18 in 2012). Assets should continue declining for the next week or two also as the IRS takes time to sort through and deposit its mountain of last-minute payments.
