ICI: MMF Assets Fall Yet Again
ICI released its latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report, which shows that money funds fell for the 14th week in a row. Assets have fallen $462 billion since May 20, when they were at a record $4.789 trillion. ICI says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $8.13 billion to $4.33 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, November 11.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $2.18 billion and prime funds decreased by $5.24 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $709 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs falling $7.6 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $573 million. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.638 trillion (84.1% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $577.7 billion (13.4%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $111.3 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 $695 billion, or 19.1%, year-to-date in 2020, with Inst MMFs up $524 billion (23.2%) and Retail MMFs up $171 billion (12.5%). Over the past 52 weeks, ICI's money fund asset series has increased by $755 billion, or 21.5%, with Retail MMFs rising by $187 billion (13.9%) and Inst MMFs rising by $568 billion (26.1%). (Crane Data's separate and broader Money Fund Intelligence Daily data series shows total MF assets are down $42.5 billion in November (as of 11/10) to $4.685 trillion.) They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $573 million to $1.54 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $2.12 billion to $1.15 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $2.08 billion to $294.10 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $620 million to $99.77 billion. Retail assets account for just over a third of total assets, or 35.6%, and Government Retail assets make up 74.4% of all Retail MMFs. ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $7.55 billion to $2.79 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $4.30 billion to $2.49 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $3.17 billion to $283.61 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $88 million to $11.54 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 89.4% of all Institutional MMF totals.
