The Investment Company Institute, which hosts it 2015 General Membership Meeting next week in Washington, released its latest weekly "Money Market Mutual Fund Assets" report yesterday and its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" late on Wednesday. The former shows money fund assets dropping for the 5th week in a row, while the latter shows that total money fund assets decreased by $32.9 billion in March, or 1.2%, to $2.646 trillion. Money market funds have posted 3 straight months of asset declines through March, decreasing by $79.8 billion since the beginning of the year, according to ICI, and they're on course for a big drop in April. Money fund assets have fallen by $52 billion in April month-to-date, and by $151 billion, or 5.5% year to date through April 29. We review ICI's latest weekly and monthly asset figures, as well as its latest Portfolio Composition figures (verify a huge jump in repo holdings in March), below.
ICI's weekly says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $5.92 billion to $2.58 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, April 29, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, Treasury funds (including agency and repo) increased by $13.11 billion and prime funds decreased by $14.18 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $4.84 billion." Note that money fund assets normally drop sharply in April due to tax payments, and they've fallen around 5% during the first half of the year for 4 consecutive years now.
They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $5.22 billion to $860.08 billion. Among retail funds, Treasury money market fund assets decreased by $810 million to $190.51 billion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.84 billion to $490.01 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $2.57 billion to $179.56 billion. Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $700 million to $1.72 trillion. Among institutional funds, Treasury money market fund assets increased by $13.92 billion to $764.42 billion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $12.34 billion to $893.20 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $2.27 billion to $64.22 billion."
ICI's "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing March 2015" shows that total money fund assets decreased by $32.9 billion, or 1.2%, to $2.646 trillion, in March 2015. It was the third straight month of declines, as assets dropped $13.9 billion in February and $33.4 billion in January. (In April, money fund assets are down once again; our Money Fund Intelligence Daily shows assets down $73.1 billion through April 29.)
The report says, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds decreased by $100.13 billion, or 0.6 percent, to $16.14 trillion in March, according to the Investment Company Institute's official survey of the mutual fund industry.... Bond funds had an inflow of $6.19 billion in March, compared with an inflow of $17.19 billion in February.... Money market funds had an outflow of $32.27 billion in March, compared with an outflow of $14.09 billion in February. In March funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $30.34 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $1.93 billion." The total number of money market funds stood at 526 (363 Taxable, 163 Tax-Exempt), down 1 from the previous month. MMFs represent 16.4% of all mutual funds, according to ICI's statistics.
ICI's latest "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" verified our previously reported sizable increases in Repo and Treasuries, and decreases in Time Deposits, CDs, and CP in March. (See Crane Data's April 13 "News", "April MF Portfolio Holdings Show Spike in Fed Repo, Treasury Jump.") ICI's series shows that holdings of Repo increased $100.5 billion, or 18.8%, in March (after increasing $12.8B in February) to $635.4 billion. Repos, which jumped ahead of CDs, represent 26.6% of taxable MMF holdings. CDs (including Eurodollar) decreased by $107.5B, or 16.9%, in March to $530.2B, after increasing $9.3 billion in February. CDs represent 22.2% of assets and are the second largest composition segment.
Treasury Bills & Securities remained in third place, increasing by $57.3 billion, or 14.9%, in March to $441.1 billion (18.5% of assets). Commercial Paper was fourth, decreasing $27.7B, or 7.4%, to $346.8 billion (14.5% of assets). U.S. Government Agency Securities stayed in fifth, dropping $12.4 billion, or 3.6%, to $328.3 billion (13.7% of assets). Notes (including Corporate and Bank) dropped by $7.5 billion, or 9.8%, to $68.6 billion (2.9% of assets), and Other holdings (including Cash Reserves) plunged by $33.7 billion to $38.1 billion.
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased by 69.6 thousand to 23.307 million, while the Number of Funds dropped by 1 to 363. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts fell by 612.9 thousand and the number of funds declined by 17. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 43 days in March, same as the previous month. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money funds have declined by 3 days.
Note: Crane Data updated its April MFI XLS late last week to reflect our final 3/31/15 composition data and maturity breakouts for our entire fund universe. (Visit our Content Center and the latest Money Fund Portfolio Holdings download page to access our April Money Fund Portfolio Holdings.)
