Prime Assets Continue Recovery
The Investment Company Institute released its latest weekly "Money Market Mutual Fund Assets" report, which shows Prime assets increasing for the third week in a row, and 8th out of the past nine weeks. Prime MMFs have risen by $18.9 billion, or 5.0% since 12/21/16. ICI's Asset release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $5.14 billion to $2.68 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, February 22, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $2.60 billion and prime funds increased by $3.28 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $740 million." Total Government MMF assets, which include Treasury funds too and which represent 80.4% of all money funds, stand at $2.155 trillion, while Total Prime MMFs, which total 14.7%, stand at $393.7 billion. Tax Exempt MMFs total $131.0 billion, or 4.9%. It explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $1.68 billion to $977.83 billion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $1.06 billion to $600.22 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $670 million to $251.71 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $50 million to $125.90 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 36.5%, and Government Retail assets make up 61.2% of all Retail MMFs. The release continues, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $3.46 billion to $1.70 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $1.54 billion to $1.55 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.61 billion to $142.02 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $680 million to $5.12 billion." Institutional assets account for 63.5% of all MMF assets, with Government Inst assets making up 91.4% of all Institutional MMFs. ICI's statistics show Prime money fund assets rising to their highest level since October 12, 2016, just prior to Money Fund Reforms going into effect. Government money market fund assets have fallen in six of the past nine weeks.
