Money market fund assets inched lower following 15 straight weeks of increases (where they'd increased by $1.175 trillion), showing their first weekly decline since the start of February. ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $1.21 billion to $4.79 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, May 27, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $8.43 billion and prime funds increased by $8.05 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $828 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs rising $6.4 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $7.6 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.903 trillion (81.5% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $750.5 billion (15.7%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $134.5 billion, 2.8%. Money fund assets are up an eye-popping $1.156 trillion, or 31.8%, year-to-date in 2020, with Inst MMFs up $956 billion (42.3%) and Retail MMFs up $200 billion (14.6%). Over the past 52 weeks, ICI's money fund asset series has increased by $1.640 trillion, or 52.1%, with Retail MMFs rising by $354 billion (29.1%) and Inst MMFs rising by $1.286 trillion (66.5%).
They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $7.62 billion to $1.57 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $7.72 billion to $991.52 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $539 million to $458.70 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $439 million to $119.81 billion." Retail assets account for just under a third of total assets, or 32.8%, and Government Retail assets make up 63.2% of all Retail MMFs.
ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $6.41 billion to $3.22 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $716 million to $2.91 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $7.51 billion to $291.82 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $389 million to $14.68 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 67.2% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 90.5% of all Institutional MMF totals. (Note: Crane Data has its own separate daily and monthly asset series.)
The ICI also released its latest "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" for April 2020 and its "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" update Thursday. These reports show that money fund assets increased by $399.4 billion to $4.737 trillion in April. Last month's increase follows an increases of $690.6 billion in March and $32.9 billion in February and a decrease of $18.1 billion in January. For the 12 months through April 30, 2020, money fund assets have increased by $1.666 trillion, or 54.3%. (Crane Data's MFI Daily shows money fund assets have increased by $99.1 billion month-to-date in May through 5/27.)
ICI's monthly "Trends" release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $1.58 trillion, or 8.4 percent, to $20.46 trillion in April, according to the Investment Company Institute's official survey of the mutual fund industry. In the survey, mutual fund companies report actual assets, sales, and redemptions to ICI."
It explains, "Bond funds had an outflow of $7.40 billion in April, compared with an outflow of $255.29 billion in March.... Money market funds had an inflow of $398.25 billion in April, compared with an inflow of $688.36 billion in March. In April funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $361.91 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $36.33 billion."
ICI's latest statistics show that both Taxable MMFs and Tax Exempt MMFs gained assets last month. Taxable MMFs increased by $392.0 billion in April to $4.601 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs increased $7.7 billion in April to $136.0 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $1.664 trillion (56.7%). Tax-Exempt funds rose by $2.7 billion over the past year (2.0%). Bond fund assets increased by $61.0 billion in April (1.4%) to $4.478 trillion; they've risen by $158.0 billion (3.7%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 23.2% of all mutual fund assets (up 0.2% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 21.9%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 360, unchanged from the month prior and down from 367 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 280 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 80 funds.
ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirms a massive jump in Treasuries and a drop in Repo last month. Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds moved past Repurchase Agreements to take first place among composition segments. Treasury holdings increased by $685.3 billion, or 54.1%, to $1.951 trillion, or 42.4% of holdings. Treasury securities have increased by $1.204 trillion, or 161.1%, over the past 12 months. (See our May 12 News, "May MF Portfolio Holdings: Treasuries Skyrocket, Repo Plunges in April.")
Repurchase Agreements fell to second place among composition segments; they decreased by $224.6 billion, or -15.3%, to $1.247 trillion, or 27.1% of holdings. Repo holdings have risen $196.7 billion, or 18.7%, over the past year. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they decreased $8.3 billion, or -0.8%, to $992.0 trillion, or 21.6% of holdings. Agency holdings have risen by $315.0 billion, or 46.5%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) stood in fourth place; they increased by $8.9 billion, or 3.7%, to $249.4 billion (5.4% of assets). CDs held by money funds have grown by $8.6 billion, or 3.6%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper remained in fifth place, down $13.1 billion, or -5.9%, to $207.5 billion (4.5% of assets). CP has decreased by $3.1 billion, or -1.5%, over one year. Notes (including Corporate and Bank) were down $679 million, or -8.0%, to $7.8 billion (0.2% of assets), while Other holdings increased $4.1 billion to $31.7 billion.
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds decreased by 8.797 million to 39.317 million, while the Number of Funds was unchanged at 280. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 4.583 million and the number of funds decreased by six. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 40 days, four more than in March. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have increased by nine.
