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 rebounding in the latest week, while the latter shows a $31.6 billion increase in money market fund assets in August to $2.867 trillion. This follows a $14.9 billion increase in July, a $30.1 billion drop in June, and a $58.3 billion jump in May. In the 12 months through August 31, money fund assets have increased by $148.2 billion, or 5.4%. (Month-to-date in Sept. through 9/26, assets have increased by $7.6 billion, $7.2 billion of which is from Prime MMFs, according to our MFI Daily.) ICI also released its latest Portfolio Holdings totals, which show a drop in Agencies and a jump in Treasuries in August. We review ICI's Assets, Trends and latest Portfolio Composition statistics below.
The "Assets" report shows money fund totals again hitting their highest levels since April 2010. Prime assets paused after a string of recent gains. Overall assets are now up $46 billion, or 1.6%, YTD, and they've increased by $143 billion, or 5.2%, over 52 weeks. ICI writes, "Total money market fund assets increased by $17.92 billion to $2.88 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, September 26, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $20.44 billion and prime funds decreased by $2.59 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $70 million." Total Government MMF assets, which include Treasury funds too, stand at $2.216 trillion (76.8% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs stand at $536.2 billion (18.6%). Tax Exempt MMFs total $131.4 billion, or 4.6%.
They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $1.44 billion to $1.06 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $370 million to $633.79 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $1.22 billion to $306.91 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $155 million to $123.11 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 36.9%, and Government Retail assets make up 59.6% of all Retail MMFs.
ICI's release adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $16.48 billion to $1.82 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $20.07 billion to $1.58 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $3.81 billion to $229.24 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $225 million to $8.31 billion." Institutional assets account for 63.1% of all MMF assets, with Government Inst assets making up 86.9% of all Institutional MMFs.
The monthly "Trends" report states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $225.62 billion, or 1.2 percent, to $19.47 trillion in August, 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 $13.05 billion in August, compared with an inflow of $17.25 billion in July.... Money market funds had an inflow of $28.87 billion in August, compared with an inflow of $12.02 billion in July. In August funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $12.01 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $16.86 billion."
The latest "Trends" shows that Taxable MMFs gained assets and Tax Exempt MMFs lost assets last month. Taxable MMFs increased by $32.0 billion in August to $2.736 trillion, after increasing by $19.3 billion in July, decreasing by $27.1 billion in June, and increasing by $51.6 billion in May. Tax-Exempt MMFs decreased $0.4 billion in August to $130.8 billion. Over the past year through 8/31/18, Taxable MMF assets increased by $145.8 billion (5.6%) while Tax-Exempt funds rose by $2.3 billion over the past year (1.8%). Bond fund assets increased by $21.7 billion in August to $4.166 trillion; they've risen by $192.0 billion (4.8%) over the past year.
Money funds now represent 14.7% of all mutual fund assets (the same level as the previous month), while bond funds represent 21.4%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was unchanged at 383 in August, but this total is down from 410 a year ago. Taxable money funds were unchanged at 299 funds, while tax-exempt money funds were unchanged at 84 funds over the last month.
ICI also released its latest "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds," which showed a drop in Agencies and an increase in Treasuries in August. Repurchase Agreements remained in first place among composition segments; they decreased by $6.8 billion, or -0.7%, to $923.8 billion, or 33.8% of holdings. Repo holdings have fallen by $7.3 billion, or -0.8%, over the past year. (For more, see our September 13 News, "September MF Portfolio Holdings: Treasuries Up; Agency, Repo Down.")
Treasuries rose by $16.9 billion, or 2.2%, to $774.8 billion or 28.3% of holdings. Treasury securities have increased by $152.6 billion over the past 12 months, or 24.5%. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they fell by $30.8 billion, or -4.6%, to $633.6 billion, or 23.2% of holdings. Agency holdings have fallen by $30.5 billion, or -4.6%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) stood in fourth place; they increased $1.2 billion, or 0.6%, to $192.8 billion (7.0% of assets). CDs held by money funds have fallen by $15.1 billion, or -7.3%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper remained in fifth place, increasing $241 million, or 0.1%, to $190.2 billion (7.0% of assets). CP has increased by $47.5 billion, or 33.3%, over one year. Notes (including Corporate and Bank) were down by $714 million, or -10.1%, to $6.4 billion (0.2% of assets), and Other holdings decreased to $12.0 billion.
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds decreased by 7.2 thousand to 32.360 million, while the Number of Funds remained at 299. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 6.179 million and the number of funds decreased by 15. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 30 days in August, up 1 day from July. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money funds have shortened by 2 days.
