MMF Assets Up for 3rd Straight Week
Money market funds continued their positive momentum this week as assets increased for the third straight week and the 6th time in 7 weeks. ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" release says, "Total money market fund assets1 increased by $5.93 billion to $2.63 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, November 5, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, Treasury funds (including agency and repo) decreased by $2.75 billion and prime funds increased by $7.51 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $1.18 billion. Assets of retail money market funds increased by $920 million to $903.16 billion. Among retail funds, Treasury money market fund assets decreased by $1.96 billion to $200.42 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.13 billion to $518.40 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $750 million to $184.34 billion. Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $5.01 billion to $1.73 trillion. Among institutional funds, Treasury money market fund assets decreased by $800 million to $758.94 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $5.38 billion to $902.58 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $430 million to $69.42 billion." The previous week, MMF assets increased by $6.1 billion and the week before they rose $12.8 billion. In other news, Time Magazine published the article, "A Shadow Falls on China," on shadow banking in China. "Will the next global financial crisis be manufactured in China? That's a question raised by the most recent report on the shadow-banking sector, from the Financial Stability Board (FSB), a group in Switzerland that coordinates the work of the world's financial regulators. Shadow banks are that mysterious collection of hedge funds, money-market funds and private lenders that operate outside the regulatory scrutiny of the formal banking sector."
