MMF Assets Drop for 3rd Week
Money market fund assets fell for the third 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 $34.05 billion to $4.72 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, June 10, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $37.32 billion and prime funds increased by $3.85 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $580 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs falling $27.5 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $6.5 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.823 trillion (81.0% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $761.4 billion (16.1%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $133.8 billion, 2.8%. Money fund assets are up an eye-popping $1.086 trillion, or 29.9%, year-to-date in 2020, with Inst MMFs up $895 billion (39.6%) and Retail MMFs up $191 billion (13.9%). Over the past 52 weeks, ICI's money fund asset series has increased by $1.546 trillion, or 48.8%, with Retail MMFs rising by $339 billion (27.7%) and Inst MMFs rising by $1.207 trillion (61.9%). They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $6.54 billion to $1.56 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $6.37 billion to $981.36 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $104 million to $460.78 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $282 million to $118.96 billion." Retail assets account for just under a third of total assets, or 33.1%, and Government Retail assets make up 62.9% of all Retail MMFs. ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $27.50 billion to $3.16 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $30.96 million to $2.84 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $3.75 billion to $300.58 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $298 million to $14.82 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 66.9% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 90.0% of all Institutional MMF totals. (Note: Crane Data has its own separate daily and monthly asset series.)
