Money market mutual fund assets were flat in the latest week, but they showed another large shift of assets from Prime funds into Government, the second in 3 weeks. ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report says, "Total money market fund assets1 decreased by $2.55 billion to $2.71 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, November 18, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds (including agency and repo) increased by $27.25 billion and prime funds decreased by $30.50 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $690 million." It continues, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $2.58 billion to $893.89 billion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $10.62 billion to $218.69 billion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $8.26 billion to $496.31 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $220 million to $178.89 billion.... Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $5.13 billion to $1.82 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $16.64 billion to $847.19 billion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $22.23 billion to $903.08 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $470 million to $67.63 billion." The latest weekly update adds, "Notes: In anticipation of the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) new money market fund regulations, many advisers are changing their prime money market funds into government money market funds. As a result, there have been, and will continue to be, large shifts in assets from prime funds to government funds before the October 2016 deadline." The latest shift includes the $16+ billion Fidelity Cash Management Prime Fund, which liquidated and merged its assets into Fidelity Government MMF on Friday, Nov. 13. Two weeks ago, several Franklin MMFs officially switched to Government funds, and 2 weeks from now we should see the massive $115 billion Fidelity Cash Reserves convert (Dec. 1). Year-to-date, money market fund assets are down just $21 billion, or 0.8%.
