MMF Assets Resume Downtrend
ICI's weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows that money fund assets inched lower after a small increase last week, marking their 16th decrease in the last 17 weeks. Assets have fallen $465 billion since May 20, when they were at a record $4.789 trillion. ICI says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $4.99 billion to $4.32 trillion for the week ended Tuesday, November 24.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $378 million and prime funds decreased by $3.27 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $2.10 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $811 million and Retail MMFs decreasing $5.8 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.648 trillion (84.4% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $567.7 billion (13.1%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $108.4 billion (2.5%). (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 $692 billion, or 19.1%, year-to-date in 2020, with Inst MMFs up $529 billion (23.4%) and Retail MMFs up $163 billion (11.9%). Over the past 52 weeks, ICI's money fund asset series has increased by $748 billion, or 21.3%, with Retail MMFs rising by $188 billion (14.0%) and Inst MMFs rising by $560 billion (25.8%). (Crane Data's separate and broader Money Fund Intelligence Daily data series shows total MF assets are down $37.4 billion in November, as of 11/24, to $4.690 trillion.) They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $5.80 billion to $1.53 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $2.43 billion to $1.15 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.80 billion to $290.26 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $1.57 billion to $97.74 billion. Retail assets account for just over a third of total assets, or 35.5%, and Government Retail assets make up 74.7% of all Retail MMFs. ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $811 million to $2.79 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $2.79 billion to $2.50 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.47 billion to 277.48 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $528 million to $10.68 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 64.5% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 89.7% of all Institutional MMF totals.
