ICI: Money Fund Assets Jump
The ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" show that money fund assets jumped in the latest week. It explains, "Total money market fund assets increased by $49.26 billion to $3.68 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, March 4, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $53.28 billion and prime funds decreased by $3.26 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $759 million." ICI's weekly series shows Institutional MMFs rising $19.4 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $29.9 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $2.750 trillion (74.7% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $798.6 billion (21.7%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $134.3 billion, 3.6%. Money fund assets are up year-to-date in 2020 (up $51B, or 1.4%), they've increased in 13 out of the last 17 weeks. Note that almost all major brokerages now "sweep" cash to bank deposits and not to money market funds, so stock market selling should show up initially in banks and not MMFs (it may then be shifted to higher-yielding MMFs). Over the past 52 weeks, ICI's money fund asset series has increased by $571 billion, or 18.3%, with Retail MMFs rising by $220 billion (18.3%) and Inst MMFs rising by $350 billion (18.4%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $29.87 billion to $1.42 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $31.58 billion to $823.77 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $389 million to $479.18 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $2.10 billion to $121.47 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 38.7%, and Government Retail assets make up 57.9% of all Retail MMFs. The release adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $19.39 billion to $2.26 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $21.70 billion to $1.93 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $3.65 billion to $319.46 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.34 billion to $12.87 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 61.3% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 85.3% of all Institutional MMF totals.
