MMF Assets Fall Back Below $3.6T
Money fund assets fell in the latest week on quarterly corporate tax payments, ending just below the $3.6 trillion level. But money fund assets have still increased in 8 out of the last 10 weeks and in 30 out of the past 35 weeks. ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows that MMF totals have increased by $552 billion, or 18.1%, year-to-date in 2019. Over the past 52 weeks, ICI's money fund asset series has increased by $591 billion, or 19.6%, with Retail MMFs rising by $215 billion (18.8%) and Inst MMFs rising by $376 billion (20.2%). ICI writes, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $19.49 billion to $3.60 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, December 18, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $11.58 billion and prime funds decreased by $7.71 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $197 million." ICI's weekly series shows Institutional MMFs falling $24.1 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $4.6 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $2.683 trillion (74.5% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $778.6 billion (21.6%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $138.0 billion, 3.8%. They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $4.61 billion to $1.36 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $3.91 billion to $770.58 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $793 million to $462.86 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $91 million to $125.76 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 37.8%, and Government Retail assets make up 56.7% of all Retail MMFs. The release adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $24.10 billion to $2.24 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $15.49 billion to $1.91 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $8.51 billion to $315.76 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $106 million to $12.27 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 62.2% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 85.8% of all Institutional MMF totals.
