Money fund assets jumped for the third straight month in October, rising by $25.5 billion month-to-date through Oct. 29, according to Crane's Money Fund Intelligence Daily, after rising by $28.0 billion in September and $34.0 billion in August. Since the SEC passed its latest Money Fund Reforms in July, assets have increased by $79.0 billion, though October will likely be the first month that Prime Institutional assets represented the bulk of the gains. ICI's latest "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing, September 2014" shows that total money fund assets increased by $22.7 billion in September to $2.604 trillion. (ICI's monthly statistics show that MMF assets increased by $34.0 billion in August, decreased by $16.1 billion in July, and dropped $17 billion in June.) Year-to-date through 9/30/14, ICI's monthly series shows money fund assets down by $74.7 billion, or 2.8%. Below, we review recent asset flows, ICI's latest Trends report, and ICI's monthly Portfolio Composition figures.
Our MFI Daily shows that Prime Institutional money fund assets, which should be the most impacted by the SEC's recent reforms, have increased by $23.8 billion month-to-date through October 29 to $824.5 billion after increasing by $5.3 billion in September. Prime Institutional assets have increased by $27.7 billion since July 23, when assets stood at $796.8 billion, belying predictions of outflows accompanying the new rules. In fact, Prime Institutional money funds had the largest increase of any segment of the money fund universe in the month of October, according to MFID.
ICI's September "Trends" says, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds decreased by $302.97 billion, or 1.9 percent, to $15.54 trillion in September, 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 $20.30 billion in September, compared with an inflow of $4.35 billion in August. Taxable bond funds had an outflow of $23.32 billion in September, versus an inflow of $1.09 billion in August. Municipal bond funds had an inflow of $3.01 billion in September, compared with an inflow of $3.26 billion in August."
It adds, "Money market funds had an inflow of $22.49 billion in September, compared with an inflow of $36.06 billion in August. In September funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $21.04 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $1.45 billion." Money funds represent 16.7% of all mutual fund assets while bond funds represent 22.2%.
Also on Thursday, ICI released its weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report, which showed assets up for the second straight week and the 5th week in 6 weeks. Total money market fund assets increased by $6.1 billion to $2.63 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, October 29, ICI reported. "Among taxable money market funds, Treasury funds (including agency and repo) increased by $820 million and prime funds increased by $8.0 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $2.78 billion."
It states, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $13.1 billion to $902.2 billion. Among retail funds, Treasury money market fund assets decreased by $2.7 billion to $202.4 billion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $8.6 billion to $516.3 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $1.8 billion to $183.6 billion. Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $19.2 billion to $1.7 trillion. Among institutional funds, Treasury money market fund assets increased by $3.5 billion to $759.7 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $16.3 billion to $897.2 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $970 million to $69.0 billion."
ICI also released its latest "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds," which showed increases in Repos and Treasurys in September. (See Crane Data's Oct. 11 News, "October Money Fund Portfolio Holdings Show Spike in Fed Repo, T-Bills.") ICI's latest Portfolio Holdings summary shows that Holdings of Repos increased by $75.1 billion, or 14.7%, in September (after increasing $11.5 billion in August, $59.9 billion in July, and decreasing $60.7 billion in June) to $585.5 billion (or 24.9% of taxable MMF holdings). Repos regained their status as the largest segment of taxable money fund portfolio holdings in September, replacing CDs, according to ICI's data series.
CDs (including Eurodollar CDs) plummeted by $53.5 billion, or 8.6%, (after rising by $7.2 billion in August, $71.9 billion in July, and $63.9 billion in June) to $559.1 billion (23.8% of assets). CDs are the second largest composition segment. Treasury Bills & Securities, which increased by $42.6 billion, or 12.1%, inched up to the third largest segment, moving ahead of Commercial Paper. Treasury holdings totaled $398.1 billion (16.9% of assets). U.S. Government Agency Securities are the fourth largest segment. Agencies grew by $3.3 billion or 1% in September to $353.8 billion (15.1% of assets). Commercial Paper, the fifth largest segment, dropped $19.8 billion (after dropping $3.0 billion in August, $16.7 billion in July, and $3.6 billion in June) to $337.2 billion. They represent 14.3% of assets. Notes (including Corporate and Bank) grew by $1.3 billion to $70.9 billion (3.0% of assets), and Other holdings increased by $1.7bmillion to $48.8 billion (2.1% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's Holdings series for taxable money funds increased by 208.5 thousand to 23.653 million, while the Number of Funds decreased by 2 to 369. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts fell by 551.0 thousand and the number of funds declined by 20. The Average Maturity of Portfolios remained the same at 45 days in September. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money funds declined by 3 days.
Note: Crane Data updated its October MFI XLS to reflect the 9/30/14 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 latest version of this new file.)
