The Investment Company Institute released its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" and its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" reports yesterday. The former shows MMF assets flat for the third week in a row, while the latter which shows a $14.9 billion increase in money market fund assets in July to $2.835 trillion. This follows a $30.1 billion drop in June, $58.3 billion jump in May, and a $0.4 billion decrease in April. In the 12 months through July 31, money fund assets have increased by $188.4 billion, or 6.7%. (Month-to-date in August through 8/29, assets have increased by $28.3 billion, $26.5 billion of which is from Prime MMFs, according to our MFI Daily.) ICI also released its latest Portfolio Holdings totals, which show jumps in Treasuries, Repo and CP holdings in July. We review ICI's Assets, Trends and latest Portfolio Composition statistics below.
The "Assets" report shows money fund totals inching lower after hitting their highest levels since 2010 last week. Prime assets continued their strong recent growth. Overall assets are now up $26 billion, or 0.9%, YTD, and they've increased by $148 billion, or 5.4%, over 52 weeks. ICI writes, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $484 million to $2.86 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, August 29, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $7.50 billion and prime funds increased by $6.30 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $711 million." Total Government MMF assets, which include Treasury funds too, stand at $2.206 trillion (77.0% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs stand at $527.6 billion (18.4%). Tax Exempt MMFs total $130.5 billion, or 4.6%.
They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $3.18 billion to $1.05 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $296 million to $630.65 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.68 billion to $300.66 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $803 million to $123.00 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 36.8%, and Government Retail assets make up 59.8% of all Retail MMFs.
ICI's release adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $3.67 billion to $1.81 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $7.20 billion to $1.57 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $3.62 billion to $226.95 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $92 million to $7.54 billion." Institutional assets account for 63.2% of all MMF assets, with Government Inst assets making up 87.0% of all Institutional MMFs.
ICI's monthly report states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $343.74 billion, or 1.8 percent, to $19.24 trillion in July, 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 $17.33 billion in July, compared with an inflow of $10.97 billion in June.... Money market funds had an inflow of $12.02 billion in July, compared with an outflow of $32.69 billion in June. In July funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $2.61 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $9.40 billion."
The latest "Trends" shows that Taxable MMFs gained assets and Tax Exempt MMFs lost assets last month. Taxable MMFs increased by $19.3 billion in July to $2.704 trillion, after decreasing by $27.1 billion in June, increasing by $51.6 billion in May, and increasing by $0.8 billion in April. Tax-Exempt MMFs decreased $4.5 billion in July to $131.2 billion. Over the past year through 7/31/18, Taxable MMF assets increased by $187.3 billion (7.4%) while Tax-Exempt funds rose by $1.0 billion over the past year (0.8%). Bond fund assets increased by $31.0 billion in July to $4.146 trillion; they rose by $216.6 billion (5.5%) over the past year.
Money funds now represent 14.7% all mutual fund assets (down from 14.9% the previous month), while bond funds represent 21.8%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was unchanged at 383 in July, but this total is down from 412 a year ago. (Taxable money funds were unchanged at 299 funds, while tax-exempt money funds were also unchanged at 84 funds over the last month.)
ICI also released its latest "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds," which showed a jump in Treasuries, Repo, CP and CDs in July. Repurchase Agreements remained in first place among composition segments; they increased by $21.6 billion, or 2.4%, to $930.5 billion, or 34.4% of holdings. Repo holdings have risen by $72.6 billion, or 8.5%, over the past year. (See our August 10 News, "August Money Fund Portfolio Holdings: Treasuries, CP, CD Show Jumps.")
Treasuries rose by $29.7 billion, or 4.1%, to $758.0 billion or 28.0% of holdings. Treasury Bills & Securities have increased by $98.6 billion over the past 12 months, or 15.0%. U.S. Government Agency Securities were the third largest segment; they rose by $957 million, or 0.1%, to $664.3 billion, or 24.6% of holdings. Agency holdings have fallen by $11.2 billion, or -1.7%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) stood in fourth place; they increased $11.9 billion, or 6.6%, to $191.6 billion (7.1% of assets). CDs held by money funds have fallen by $1.4 billion, or -0.7%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper remained in fifth place, increasing $20.3B, or 12.0%, to $189.9 billion (7.0% of assets). CP has increased by $62.4 billion, or 49.0%, over one year. Notes (including Corporate and Bank) were up by $341 million, or 5.0%, to $7.1 billion (0.3% of assets), and Other holdings increased to $12.3 billion.
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased by 25.2 thousand to 32.369 million, while the Number of Funds remained at 299. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 6.279 million and the number of funds decreased by 17. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 29 days in July, down 2 days from June. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money funds have shortened by 3 days.
