The Investment Company Institute released its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report, its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" release, and its latest "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" update yesterday. The first two reports show that the slow, steady recovering in Prime money funds assets continues, while the third confirmed that `Repo continued to grow while Treasuries shrank in May. (See our June 12 News, "June Money Fund Portfolio Holdings: Repo Rises, Treasuries Drop Again.") We review these latest reports below.
ICI's latest weekly assets report shows an increase in overall assets and continued growth in Prime MMFs assets. Prime MMFs rose by $3.0 billion to $411.2 billion, their 8th increase in the past 10 weeks. Prime assets have risen by $16.8 billion over the past 10 weeks, or 4.2%, and year-to-date Prime assets have increased by $35 billion, or 9.3%.
ICI writes, "Total money market fund assets increased by $4.17 billion to $2.62 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, June 28, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $2.68 billion and prime funds increased by $2.04 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $554 million." Total Government MMF assets, which include Treasury funds too, stand at $2.080 trillion (79.3% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs stand at $413.3 billion (15.8%). Tax Exempt MMFs total $128.6 billion, or 4.9%.
They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $1.86 billion to $953.61 billion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $1.50 billion to $578.80 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $241 million to $251.93 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $600 million to $122.88 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 36.4%, and Government Retail assets make up 60.7% of all Retail MMFs.
ICI's release adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $6.03 billion to $1.67 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $4.18 billion to $1.50 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $1.80 billion to $161.32 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $46 million to $5.71 billion." Institutional assets account for 63.6% of all MMF assets, with Government Inst assets making up 90.0% of all Institutional MMFs.
ICI's latest "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing - May 2017" shows a $12.6 billion increase in money market fund assets in May to $2.654 trillion. The decrease follows a $24.0 billion decrease in April, a $17.7 billion decrease in March, a $0.4 billion dollar increase in February, and a $46.6 billion increase in January. In the 12 months through May 31, money fund assets were down $55.8 billion, or -2.1%. (Month-to-date in June through 6/28/17, our Money Fund Intelligence Daily shows total assets down by $31.3.9 billion, but Prime MMFs are up by $7.5 billion.)
The monthly report states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $220.08 billion, or 1.3 percent, to $17.36 trillion in May, 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."
It explains, "Bond funds had an inflow of $25.53 billion in May, compared with an inflow of $15.00 billion in April.... Money market funds had an inflow of $11.92 billion in May, compared with an outflow of $23.47 billion in April. In May funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $19.60 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $7.68 billion. <b:>`_."
The latest "Trends" shows that both Taxable MMFs and Tax-Exempt MMFs gained assets last month. Taxable MMFs increased by $11.3 billion in May, after decreasing $21.9 billion in April and $17.5 billion in March, increasing $0.8 billion in February, and decreasing $46.8 billion in January. Tax-Exempt MMFs increased $1.5 billion in May, after decreasing $2.2 billion in April, $0.3 billion in March, and $0.3 billion in February. Over the past year through 5/31/17, Taxable MMF assets decreased by $23.5 billion while Tax-Exempt funds fell by $79.2 billion.
Money funds now represent 15.3% (down from 15.4% last month) of all mutual fund assets, while bond funds represent 22.3%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was down 1 to 417 in May, and down from 452 a year ago. (Taxable money funds have decreased from 318 to 317 and Tax-exempt money funds were unchanged at 100 over the last month.)
ICI's Portfolio Holdings showed another drop in Treasuries in May and a jump in Repo. Repo remained the largest portfolio segment, up $66.2 billion, or 8.0%, to $896.9 billion or 35.5% of holdings. Repo has increased by $337.0 billion over the past 12 months, or 60.2%. Treasury Bills & Securities remained in second place among composition segments, but they declined by $18.9 billion, or -2.8%, to $655.9 billion, or 26.0% of holdings. Treasury holdings rose by $147.1 billion, or 28.9%, over the past year. U.S. Government Agency Securities remained in third place, but were flat again (down $2.0 billion, or -0.3%) at $642.0 billion or 25.4% of holdings. Govt Agency holdings rose by $130.2 billion, or 25.4%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) stood in fourth place; they increased $1.8 billion, or 0.9%, to $191.7 billion (7.6% of assets). CDs held by money funds fell by $362.3 billion, or -65.4%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper remained in fifth place but increased $3.9B, or 3.3%, to $121.7 billion (4.8% of assets). CP has plummeted by $191.5 billion, or -61.1%, over one year. Notes (including Corporate and Bank) were up by $334 million, or 3.9%, to $8.9 billion (0.4% of assets), and Other holdings inched down to $23.6 billion.
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds decreased by 273.1 thousand to 25.672 million, while the Number of Funds inched down by one to 317. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 2.543 million and the number of funds declined by 6. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 32 days in May, down 3 days from April. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money funds have shortened by 3 days.
