Money Funds See Huge Asset Jump
The ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" show that money fund assets skyrocketed in the latest week. It explains, "Total money market fund assets increased by $93.95 billion to $3.78 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, March 11, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $94.33 billion and prime funds decreased by $547 million. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $164 million." ICI's weekly series shows Institutional MMFs rising $86.0 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $8.0 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $2.845 trillion (75.3% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $798.1 billion (21.1%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $134.5 billion, 3.6%. Money fund assets are up $145 billion, or 4.0%, year-to-date in 2020, and they've increased in 14 out of the last 18 weeks. Over the past 52 weeks, ICI's money fund asset series has increased by $665 billion, or 21.4%, with Retail MMFs rising by $228 billion (19.0%) and Inst MMFs rising by $437 billion (22.9%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $7.99 billion to $1.43 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $9.69 billion to $833.47 billion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.86 billion to $477.31 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $153 million to $121.62 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 37.9%, and Government Retail assets make up 58.2% of all Retail MMFs. The release adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $85.96 billion to $2.34 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $84.64 billion to $2.01 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $1.31 billion to $320.78 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $11 million to $12.88 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 62.1% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 85.8% of all Institutional MMF totals.
