Late Thursday, ICI posted its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report, which showed that money fund assets rose for the 4th week in a row in August. Month-to-date through August 28, total money fund assets have increased by $54.2 billion, according to Crane's Money Fund Intelligence Daily. (Note: these numbers are inflated by about $13 billion, since we added several new funds to our MFI Daily last week, so the adjusted gain for August is up $41 billion.) Prime Institutional assets, which are the most impacted by the SEC's recent reforms have increased by $17.5 billion month-to-date through August 28 (or up $11 billion when we remove the new funds added). ICI also released its latest "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing, July 2014" late last week, which tells us that total money fund assets decreased by $16 billion in July to $2.54 trillion after decreasing $17 billion in June, increasing $3.8 billion in May, and decreasing $57.9 billion in April. Below, we review ICI's latest monthly and weekly assets survey, and our daily numbers, as well as ICI's July Portfolio Composition statistics.
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $10.80 billion to $2.60 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, August 27, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, Treasury funds (including agency and repo) increased by $7.02 billion and prime funds increased by $5.52 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $1.74 billion." Assets have risen for four consecutive weeks and have increased by $40.9 billion, but they have decreased by $124 billion, or 4.5% YTD.
The release explains, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $2.81 billion to $902.83 billion. Among retail funds, Treasury money market fund assets decreased by $1.41 billion to $201.35 billion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $700 million to $514.87 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $700 million to $186.61 billion. Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $13.61 billion to $1.69 trillion. Among institutional funds, Treasury money market fund assets increased by $8.43 billion to $731.07 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $6.22 billion to $890.20 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $1.04 billion to $70.97 billion."
The latest numbers from our Money Fund Intelligence Daily show that total money fund assets are $2.49 trillion through August 28, up $52.4 billion month-to-date and down $121.8 billion (4.6%) year-to-date (through August 28). The Crane Money Fund Average, which tracks all taxable funds, has jumped $52.3 billion month-to-date to $2.24 trillion through August 28. Year-to-date, the Crane Money Fund Average is down $108.7 billion; over the last 7 days it's down $12.6 billion. The Crane Retail Money Fund Index has increased $10.9 billion MTD to $767.9 billion but is down $26.9 billion YTD through August 28. The Crane Institutional Money Fund Index is up $41.5 billion to $1.47 trillion MTD and down $81.7 billion YTD.
ICI's July "Trends" says, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds decreased by $212.48 billion, or 1.4 percent, to $15.45 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.... Bond funds had an outflow of $9.09 billion in July, compared with an inflow of $10.66 billion in June. Taxable bond funds had an inflow of $7.64 billion in July, versus an inflow of $8.35 billion in June. Municipal bond funds had an inflow of $1.45 billion in July compared to an inflow of $2.31 billion in June."
It adds, "Money market funds had an outflow of $16.12 billion in July, down 0.6%, compared with an outflow of $17.15 billion in June. In July, funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $19.88 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $3.77 billion." Money funds represent 16.5% of all mutual fund assets while bond funds represent 22.5%. For the 12 months through 7/31/14, ICI's monthly series shows money fund assets down by $66.2 billion, or 2.5%.
ICI also released its latest "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds," which verified our reported plunge in Repo and Treasurys in July, and jump in CDs. (See Crane Data's July 14 News, "August MF Holdings Show Plunge in Repo, Drop in Treasury, Jump in TDs.") ICI's latest Portfolio Holdings summary shows that Holdings of Certificates of Deposits increased by $59.9 billion in July (after decreasing $60.7 billion in June, and increasing $9.9 billion in May and $50.3 billion in April) to $601.5 billion (or 26.3% of taxable MMF holdings). CDs once again became the largest segment of taxable money fund portfolio holdings in July, bumping Repo out of first place, according to ICI's data series.
Repos fell by $71.9 billion, or 12.5%, after rising by $63.9 billion in June and $33.5 billion in May, to $501.5 billion (21.9% of assets). Repos are now the second largest composition segment. Treasury Bills & Securities, the third largest segment, fell $16.7 billion (after dropping $3.6 billion in June, dipping $29.7 billion in May, and plunging $52.7 billion in April) to $359.9 billion (15.7%).
Commercial Paper, which increased by $6.9 billion, or 2.0%, remained the fourth largest segment just ahead of U.S. Government Agency Securities. CP holdings totaled $353.8 billion (15.5% of assets) while Agencies grew by $16.7 billion, or 5.0%, to $350.0 billion (15.3%). Notes (including Corporate and Bank) fell by $1.6 billion to $66.0 billion (2.9% of assets), and Other holdings dropped by $675 million to $48.0 billion (2.1%).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's Holdings series for taxable money funds decreased by 3,798 to 23.640 million, while the Number of Funds decreased by 2 to 373. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts fell by 971 million and the number of funds declined by 14. The Average Maturity of Portfolios increased by 1 day to 45 days in July. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money funds declined by 4 days.
Note: Crane Data updated its August MFI XLS to reflect the 7/31/14 composition data and maturity breakouts for our entire fund universe on August 20. 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.)
