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 report shows the biggest inflow into Government (and overall) MMFs of the year, while the first two reports both show that the slow, steady recovering in Prime money funds assets continues. (Money funds often see inflows in the second half of the year vs. outflows in the first half.) The third update confirms that Treasury holdings continue to shrink while other portfolio segments were mixed. (See our July 13 News, "July Money Fund Portfolio Holdings: Repo Only Segment to Increase.") We review these releases below.
ICI's latest weekly assets report shows an increase in overall assets, a sharp rebound in Govt assets and continued growth in Prime MMFs. Prime MMFs rose by $1.7 billion to $412.9 billion, their 9th increase in the past 11 weeks. Prime assets have risen by $18.7 billion over the past 11 weeks, and year-to-date Prime assets have increased by $37 billion, or almost 10%.
ICI writes, "Total money market fund assets increased by $23.28 billion to $2.64 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, July 26, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $21.79 billion and prime funds increased by $1.72 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $226 million." Total Government MMF assets, which include Treasury funds too, stand at $2.088 trillion (79.1% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs stand at $422.6 billion (16.0%). Tax Exempt MMFs total $129.7 billion, or 4.9%.
They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $1.87 billion to $955.21 billion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $1.72 billion to $578.61 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $310 million to $252.99 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $465 million to $123.61 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 36.2%, and Government Retail assets make up 60.6% of all Retail MMFs.
ICI's release adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $25.15 billion to $1.68 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $23.50 billion to $1.51 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $1.41 billion to $169.62 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $239 million to $6.06 billion." Institutional assets account for 63.8% of all MMF assets, with Government Inst assets making up 89.6% of all Institutional MMFs.
ICI's latest "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing - June 2017" shows a $20.9 billion increase in money market fund assets in June to $2.633 trillion. The decrease follows a $12.6 billion increase in May, 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 June 30, money fund assets were down $58.8 billion, or -2.2%.
The monthly report states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $61.29 billion, or 0.4 percent, to $17.43 trillion in June, 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 $19.75 billion in June, compared with an inflow of $25.53 billion in May.... Money market funds had an outflow of $22.24 billion in June, compared with an inflow of $11.92 billion in May. In June funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $16.35 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $5.89 billion."
The latest "Trends" shows that both Taxable MMFs and Tax-Exempt MMFs lost assets last month. Taxable MMFs decreased by $20.3 billion in June, after increasing $11.3 billion in May, 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 decreased $0.6 billion in June, after increasing $1.5 billion in May, decreasing $2.2 billion in April, $0.3 billion in March, and $0.3 billion in February. Over the past year through 6/30/17, Taxable MMF assets increased by $5.6 billion while Tax-Exempt funds fell by $64.3 billion.
Money funds now represent 15.1% (down from 15.3% last month) of all mutual fund assets, while bond funds represent 22.3%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was unchanged at 417 in June, and down from 444 a year ago. (Taxable money funds were unchanged at 317 and Tax-exempt money funds were unchanged at 100 over the last month.)
ICI's Portfolio Holdings showed another drop in Treasuries in June while other holdings were mixed. Repo remained the largest portfolio segment, down $3.2 billion, or 0.4%, to $893.8 billion or 35.7% of holdings. Repo has increased by $252.2 billion over the past 12 months, or 39.3%. Treasury Bills & Securities remained in second place among composition segments, but they declined by $31.7 billion, or -4.8%, to $624.2 billion, or 24.9% of holdings. Treasury holdings rose by $105.9 billion, or 20.4%, over the past year. U.S. Government Agency Securities remained in third place, but were flat again (up $1.1 billion, or 0.2%) at $643.0 billion or 25.7% of holdings. Govt Agency holdings rose by $77.2 billion, or 13.6%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) stood in fourth place; they decreased $11.8 billion, or -6.1%, to $179.9 billion (7.2% of assets). CDs held by money funds fell by $257.1 billion, or -58.8%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper remained in fifth place but increased $2.9B, or 2.4%, to $124.6 billion (5.0% of assets). CP has plummeted by $147.6 billion, or -54.2%, over one year. Notes (including Corporate and Bank) were down by $1.7 billion, or -18.9%, to $7.2 billion (0.3% of assets), and Other holdings inched up to $32.4 billion.
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased by 88.5 thousand to 25.760 million, while the Number of Funds remained unchanged at 317. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 2.351 million and the number of funds declined by 5. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 33 days in June, up one day from May. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money funds have shortened by 3 days.
