ICI Releases MMF Covid Report
The Investment Company Institute released its "Report of the Covid-19 Market Impact Working Group: Experiences of US Money Market Funds During the COVID-19 Crisis" Thursday. See their press release here: "ICI: Prime Money Market Funds Didn't Trigger Financial Turmoil in March," and watch for more coverage in coming days. `ICI also released its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report, which shows that money market fund assets fell yet again in the latest week, their thirteenth decline in a row and 21st decline over the past 24 weeks. Assets have fallen $454 billion since May 20, when they were at a record $4.789 trillion. ICI says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $13.15 billion to $4.34 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, November 4.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $1.61 billion and prime funds decreased by $14.28 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $477 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs falling $22.8 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $9.7 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.640 trillion (84.0% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $583.0 billion (13.4%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $112.0 billion (2.6%). (Note that ICI's asset totals don't include a number of funds tracked by the SEC and Crane Data.) ICI shows money fund assets up a still massive $703 billion, or 19.4%, year-to-date in 2020, with Inst MMFs up $532 billion (23.5%) and Retail MMFs up $171 billion (12.5%). Over the past 52 weeks, ICI's money fund asset series has increased by $780 billion, or 22.2%, with Retail MMFs rising by $193 billion (14.4%) and Inst MMFs rising by $587 billion (27.0%). (Crane Data's separate and broader Money Fund Intelligence Daily data series shows total MF assets are down $26.9 billion in November (as of 11/4) to $4.701 trillion.) They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $9.68 billion to $1.54 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $13.33 billion to $1.14 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $3.02 billion to $296.17 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $638 million to $100.39 billion. Retail assets account for just over a third of total assets, or 35.6%, and Government Retail assets make up 73.3% of all Retail MMFs. ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $22.83 billion to $2.79 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $11.72 billion to $2.50 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $11.26 billion to $286.78 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $161 million to $11.63 billion. Institutional assets, which broke below the $3.0 trillion level for the first time since April 22 at the end of August, accounted for 64.4% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 89.3% of all Institutional MMF totals.
