ICI: Money Fund Assets Drop
Money market fund assets fell for the second week in a row, their first declines after 15 straight weeks of inflows (during which time assets increased by $1.175 trillion). ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $36.30 billion to $4.75 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, June 3, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $43.16 billion and prime funds increased by $6.99 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $126 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs falling $33.9 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $2.4 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.860 trillion (81.2% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $757.7 billion (15.9%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $134.4 billion, 2.8%. Money fund assets are up an eye-popping $1.120 trillion, or 30.8%, year-to-date in 2020, with Inst MMFs up $922 billion (40.8%) and Retail MMFs up $198 billion (14.4%). Over the past 52 weeks, ICI's money fund asset series has increased by $1.589 trillion, or 50.2%, with Retail MMFs rising by $346 billion (28.3%) and Inst MMFs rising by $1.243 trillion (64.1%). They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $2.38 billion to $1.57 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $3.79 billion to $987.73 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $1.98 billion to $460.68 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $562 million to $119.25 billion." Retail assets account for just under a third of total assets, or 33.0%, and Government Retail assets make up 63.0% of all Retail MMFs. ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $33.93 billion to $3.18 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $39.37 million to $2.87 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $5.01 billion to $296.83 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $436 million to $15.11 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 67.0% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 90.2% of all Institutional MMF totals. (Note: Crane Data has its own separate daily and monthly asset series.)
