Money Fund Assets Plunge
ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows assets down sharply in the latest week, following strong start to 2019. ICI's weekly series shows Retail MMFs inched higher by $2.72 billion, while Institutional MMFs plummeted by $49.93 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, stood at $2.292 trillion (74.8% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs reached $633.0 billion (20.7%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $139.8 billion, or 4.6%. They write, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $47.21 billion to $3.06 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, March 20, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $46.09 billion and prime funds decreased by $1.12 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds were unchanged." ICI states, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $2.72 billion to $1.21 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $1.02 billion to $694.57 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $1.79 billion to $382.18 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $83 million to $130.13 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 39.4%, and Government Retail assets make up 57.6% of all Retail MMFs. The ICI release adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $49.93 billion to $1.86 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $47.10 billion to $1.60 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $2.91 billion to $250.81 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $84 million to $9.66 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 60.6% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 86.0% of all Institutional MMF totals.
