The ICI released its monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" and its "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" for October 2020 yesterday. The former report shows that money fund assets decreased by $47.6 billion to $4.357 trillion in October, after decreasing $118.4 billion in September, $56.7 billion in August, $55.4 billion in July and $133.5 billion in June. Prior to this, assets increased $31.8 billion in May, $399.4 billion in April and $690.6 in March. For the 12 months through Oct. 31, 2020, money fund assets have increased by a massive $863.5 billion, or 25.5%. (Month-to-date in November, MMF assets have decreased by $28.0 billion through 11/23, according to our MFI Daily.)
ICI's monthly "Trends" release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds decreased by $334.62 billion, or 1.5 percent, to $21.82 trillion in October, 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.... Bond funds had an inflow of $44.96 billion in October, compared with an inflow of $38.61 billion in September.... Money market funds had an outflow of $47.68 billion in October, compared with an outflow of $118.56 billion in September. In October funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $57.18 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $9.50 billion."
ICI's latest statistics show that both Taxable MMFs and Tax Exempt MMFs lost assets last month. Taxable MMFs decreased by $46.1 billion in October to $4.245 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs decreased $1.5 billion to $111.9 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $863.6 trillion (25.5%), while Tax-Exempt funds fell by $25.3 billion over the past year (-18.4%). Bond fund assets increased by $34.0 billion in October (0.6%) to $5.002 trillion; they've risen by $386.2 billion (8.4%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 20.0% of all mutual fund assets (up 0.1% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 22.9%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 347, down three from the month prior and down from 368 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 270 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 77 funds.
ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirms a modest increase in CD and Notes, and drops in all other sectors last month. Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds remain in first place among composition segments since surpassing Repo in April. Treasury holdings decreased by $46.6 billion, or -2.0%, to $2.228 trillion, or 52.5% of holdings. Treasury securities have increased by $1.239 trillion, or 125.2%, over the past 12 months. (See our November 12 News, "November MF Portfolio Holdings: Repo, Agencies, Treas Plunge; TDs Up.")
Repurchase Agreements were in second place among composition segments; they decreased by $39.5 billion, or -4.0%, to $959.4 billion, or 22.6% of holdings. Repo holdings have dropped $179.5 billion, or -15.8%, over the past year. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they decreased $31.3 billion, or -4.5%, to $668.7 billion, or 15.8% of holdings. Agency holdings have fallen by $65.6 billion, or -8.9%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) stood in fourth place; they increased by $8.3 billion, or 4.6%, to $188.7 billion (4.4% of assets). CDs held by money funds shrunk by $90.1 billion, or -32.3%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper remained in fifth place, down $2.7 million, or -1.6%, to $170.1 billion (4.0% of assets). CP has decreased by $72.5 billion, or -29.9%, over one year. Other holdings decreased to $32.5 billion (0.8% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) were down to $5.1 billion (0.1% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased to 39.965 million, while the Number of Funds was down two at 270. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 3.563 million and the number of funds decreased by 18. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 45 days, unchanged from September. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have increased by nine.
In related news, Crane Data published its latest Weekly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics Tuesday, which track a shifting subset of our monthly Portfolio Holdings collection. The most recent cut (with data as of November 20) includes Holdings information from 77 money funds (up 5 from a week ago), which represent $1.958 trillion (down from $2.239 trillion) of the $4.642 trillion (42.2%) in total money fund assets tracked by Crane Data. (Note that our Weekly MFPH are e-mail only and aren't available on the website.)
Our latest Weekly MFPH Composition summary again shows Government assets dominating the holdings list with Treasury totaling $1.069 trillion (down from $1.237 billion a week ago), or 54.6%, Repurchase Agreements (Repo) totaling $455.8 billion (down from $523.7 billion a week ago), or 23.3% and Government Agency securities totaling $244.5 billion (down from $291.8 billion), or 12.5%. Commercial Paper (CP) totaled $74.3 billion (up from $63.2 billion), or 3.8%, and Certificates of Deposit (CDs) totaled $37.8 billion (down from $60.4 billion), or 1.9%. The Other category accounted for $52.8 billion or 2.7%, while VRDNs accounted for $23.7 billion, or 1.2%.
The Ten Largest Issuers in our Weekly Holdings product include: the US Treasury with $1.072 trillion (54.7% of total holdings), Federal Home Loan Bank with $131.0B (6.7%), BNP Paribas with $62.3B (3.2%), Fixed Income Clearing Corp with $47.6B (2.4%), Federal Farm Credit Bank with $41.7B (2.1%), Federal National Mortgage Association with $39.2B (2.0%), RBC with $35.5B (1.8%), JP Morgan with $34.5B (1.8%), Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp with $30.8B (1.6%) and Credit Agricole with $28.6B (1.5%).
The Ten Largest Funds tracked in our latest Weekly include: Goldman Sachs FS Govt MM ($163.3 billion), BlackRock Lq FedFund ($163.0B), Fidelity Inv MM: Govt Port ($145.9B), Federated Hermes Govt Obl ($122.0B), BlackRock Lq T-Fund ($101.0B), Morgan Stanley Inst Liq Govt ($85.3B), Goldman Sachs FS Treas Instruments ($82.2B), First American Govt Oblg ($79.4B), Dreyfus Govt Cash Mgmt ($74.2B) and State Street Inst US Govt ($65.6B). (Let us know if you'd like to see our latest domestic U.S. and/or "offshore" Weekly Portfolio Holdings collection and summary, or our Bond Fund Portfolio Holdings data series.)
