Money fund assets rebounded slightly in the past week and increased slightly for May. The latest weekly "ICI Money Market Mutual Fund Assets report" release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $3.33 billion to $2.59 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, May 28, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, treasury funds (including agency and repo) increased by $3.86 billion and prime funds increased by $1.30 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $1.83 billion." Year-to-date, money fund assets have declined by $132 billion, or 4.8%, but month-to-date (through May 28) money fund assets have increased by $8.9 billion, according to our Money Fund Intelligence Daily.
ICI writes, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $1.23 billion to $903.31 billion. Treasury money market fund assets in the retail category increased by $130 million to $201.58 billion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $130 million to $515.49 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $1.23 billion to $186.24 billion. Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $4.58 billion to $1.68 trillion. Among institutional funds, treasury money market fund assets increased by $3.73 billion to $719.22 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $1.45 billion to $893.99 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $600 million to $70.63 billion."
Yesterday, ICI also released its latest "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing, April 2014," which told us that money fund assets decreased by $57.9 billion in April, after decreasing $29.6 billion in March, $47.3 billion in February and $10.5 billion in January. For the 12 months through 4/30/14, ICI's monthly series shows assets up by $4.0 billion, or 0.2%. (For calendar 2013, ICI showed money fund assets up by $25.0 billion, or 0.9%.)
ICI's April "Trends"," >`_ says, "The combined assets of the nation’s mutual funds decreased by $35.43 billion, or 0.2 percent, to $15.20 trillion in April, 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 $7.42 billion in April, compared with an inflow of $12.53 billion in March. Taxable bond funds had an inflow of $6.30 billion in April, versus an inflow of $11.08 billion in March. Municipal bond funds had an inflow of $1.12 billion in April, compared with an inflow of $1.45 billion in March."
It adds, "Money market funds had an outflow of $57.99 billion in April, compared with an outflow of $29.16 billion in March. Funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $39.69 billion. Funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $18.29 billion." Money funds represent 16.9% of all mutual fund assets while bond funds represent 22.2%.
ICI also released its latest "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds," which verified our reported plunge in repo and Treasuries, and jump in CDs, in April. (See Crane Data's May 12 News, "May MMF Portfolio Holdings Show Repo, Treasury Drop, Jump in TD, CD.") ICI's Portfolio Holdings for April 2014 show that Holdings of Certificates of Deposits jumped by $50.3 billion in April (after declining by $54.1 billion in March and $11.6 billion in Feb., jumping by $48.4 billion in Jan., and falling $25.9 billion in Dec.) to $563.1 billion (24.3%); CDs rose to first place among the largest composition segments.
Repos plunged by $38.4 billion, or 7.5%, (after jumping by $41.7 billion in March, declining by $11.6 billion in Feb. and $16.5 billion in Jan., and rising $43.0 billion in Dec.) to $476.4 billion (20.6% of assets). Repo moved down to become the second largest segment of taxable money fund portfolio holdings in April according to ICI's data series. Treasury Bills & Securities, the third largest segment, plummeted $52.7 billion in April (after an increase of $1.6 billion in March and $7.8 billion in Feb., and a decrease of $43.8 billion in Jan.) to $409.5 billion (17.7%).
Commercial Paper, which increased by $5.8 billion, or 1.6%, remained the fourth largest segment just ahead of U.S. Government Agency Securities. CP holdings totaled $366.2 billion (15.8% of assets) while Agencies fell by $15.3 billion to $316.4 billion (13.7%). Notes (including Corporate and Bank) rose by $2.5 billion to $92.8 billion (4.0% of assets), and Other holdings rose by $6.8 billion to $80.9 billion (3.5%).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's Holdings series for taxable money funds decreased by 75.9 thousand to 23.766 million, while the Number of Funds decreased by one to 379. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts fell by 809.4 thousand and the number of funds declined by 13. The Average Maturity of Portfolios declined by one day to 45 days in April. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money funds declined by 4 days.
Note: Crane Data updated its May MFI XLS to reflect the 4/30/14 composition data and maturity breakouts for our entire fund universe on May 22. 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 latest version of this new file.)
