Crane Data's latest monthly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics will be released today, Friday, and we'll be writing our normal monthly update on the Dec. 31 data for Monday's News. But we also generate a separate and broader Portfolio Holdings data set based on the SEC's Form N-MFP filings, and we posted these to the website yesterday. (We continue to merge the two series, and the N-MFP version is now available via Holding file listings to Money Fund Wisdom subscribers.) Our new N-MFP summary, with data as of Dec. 31, 2019, includes holdings information from 1,078 money funds, representing assets of a record $4.016 trillion (up from $3.992 trillion last month), the first time MMFs have totaled over $4.0 trillion ever. We review the latest N-MFP data below.
Our latest Form N-MFP Summary for All Funds (taxable and tax-exempt) shows Repurchase Agreement (Repo) holdings in money market funds totaling $1,243 billion (up from $1,166 billion), or 31.0% of all assets. Treasury holdings total $1,123 billion (down from $1,138 billion), or 28.0%, and Government Agency securities totaled $828.7 billion (up from $785.4 billion), or 20.6%. Holdings of Treasuries, Government agencies and Repo (the vast majority of which is backed by Treasuries and agencies) combined total $3.195 trillion, or 79.6% of all holdings.
Commercial paper (CP) totals $323.0 billion (down from $362.1 billion), or 8.0%, and Certificates of Deposit (CDs) total $269.6 billion (down from $280.3 billion), or 6.7%. The Other category (primarily Time Deposits) totals $127.9 billion (down from $158.1 billion), or 3.2%, and VRDNs account for $100.7 billion (down from $101.6 billion last month), or 2.5%.
Broken out into the SEC's more detailed categories, the CP totals were comprised of: $214.0 billion, or 5.3%, in Financial Company Commercial Paper; $61.3 billion or 1.5%, in Asset Backed Commercial Paper; and, $47.7 billion, or 1.2%, in Non-Financial Company Commercial Paper. The Repo totals were made up of: U.S. Treasury Repo ($804.3B, or 20.0%), U.S. Govt Agency Repo ($377.7B, or 9.4%) and Other Repo ($61.3B, or 1.5%).
The N-MFP Holdings summary for the 214 Prime Money Market Funds shows: CP holdings of $317.0 billion (down from $356.4 billion), or 29.1%; CD holdings of $269.6 billion (down from $280.3 billion), or 24.7%; Repo holdings of $243.9 billion (up from $186.4 billion), or 22.4%; Treasury holdings of $101.3 billion (down from $118.9 billion), or 10.6%; Other (primarily Time Deposits) holdings of $77.6 billion (down from $108.2 billion), or 7.1%; Government Agency holdings of $75.4 billion (up from $63.7 billion), or 6.9%; and VRDN holdings of $5.4 billion (down from $5.6 billion), or 0.5%.
The SEC's more detailed categories show CP in Prime MMFs made up of: $214.0 billion (down from $236.5 billion), or 19.6% in Financial Company Commercial Paper; $61.3 billion (down from $62.8 billion) or, 5.6% in Asset Backed Commercial Paper; and $41.8 billion (down from $57.1 billion), or 3.8% in Non-Financial Company Commercial Paper. The Repo totals include: U.S. Treasury Repo ($123.5 billion, or 11.3%), U.S. Govt Agency Repo ($59.0 billion, or 5.4%), and Other Repo ($61.3 billion, or 5.6%).
In other news, ICI's separate "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows that money fund assets increased slightly in the latest week to $3.64 trillion, their highest level since July 2009. Money fund assets have increased in 10 out of the last 12 weeks and in 17 out of the past 18 weeks. Over the past 52 weeks, ICI's money fund asset series has increased by $571 billion, or 18.6%, with Retail MMFs rising by $183 billion (15.3%) and Inst MMFs rising by $388 billion (20.7%).
ICI writes, "Total money market fund assets increased by $5.95 billion to $3.64 trillion for the eight-day period ended Wednesday, January 8, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $13.09 billion and prime funds increased by $15.13 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $3.90 billion." ICI's weekly series shows Institutional MMFs falling $3.8 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $9.8 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $2.708 trillion (74.4% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $787.9 billion (21.7%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $141.5 billion, 3.9%.
They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $9.75 billion to $1.38 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $5.03 billion to $784.32 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.55 billion to $467.21 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $2.17 billion to $128.26 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 37.9%, and Government Retail assets make up 56.8% of all Retail MMFs.
The release adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $3.80 billion to $2.26 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $18.12 billion to $1.92 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $12.59 billion to $320.73 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.73 billion to $13.27 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 62.1% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 85.2% of all Institutional MMF totals.
Money fund assets ended 2019 with their fastest growth rate and biggest asset increase since 2008. Assets increased by more than 2 1/2 times 2018's 7.2% gain. The prior seven years showed relatively flat growth with MMFs increasing by 4.1% in 2017, decreasing 1.1% in 2016, increasing 1.0% in 2015, increasing 0.5% in 2014 and 2013, and increasing 0.4% in 2012. In 2011, money fund assets fell by 4.1%. In 2009 and 2010, assets plummeted by 14.0% and 14.7%, respectively.
Our separate MFI Daily asset series shows money fund assets up $9.7 billion month-to-date to $3.987 trillion. Prime assets are up $15.6 billion MTD, while Government assets are down by $10.1B. Tax-Exempt MMFs increased $4.2 billion. Prime and Government MF assets were up $378.7 billion and $492.6 billion in 2019, respectively while Tax Exempt assets were down $1.3B year-to-date. (Note: Crane Data, ICI and the SEC all have separate asset series, so totals will vary due to differences in the fund universes covered.)
