MMF Assets Continue Inching Lower
ICI's weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows that money fund assets inched lower again in the latest week, marking their 17th decrease over the last 18 weeks. Assets have fallen $469 billion since May 20, when they were at a record $4.789 trillion. ICI says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $3.88 billion to $4.32 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, December 2.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $1.20 billion and prime funds decreased by $3.76 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $1.08 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs decreasing $330 million and Retail MMFs decreasing $3.6 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.647 trillion (84.4% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $564.0 billion (13.1%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $109.5 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 $688 billion, or 19.0%, year-to-date in 2020, with Inst MMFs up $529 billion (23.4%) and Retail MMFs up $160 billion (11.7%). Over the past 52 weeks, ICI's money fund asset series has increased by $741 billion, or 21.1%, with Retail MMFs rising by $181 billion (13.5%) and Inst MMFs rising by $561 billion (25.8%). (Crane Data's separate and broader Money Fund Intelligence Daily data series shows total MF assets are down $23.5 billion in December, as of 12/2, to $4.695 trillion.) They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $3.55 billion to $1.53 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $741 million to $1.14 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $2.77 billion to $287.48 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $41 million to $97.69 billion. Retail assets account for just over a third of total assets, or 35.4%, and Government Retail assets make up 74.8% of all Retail MMFs. ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $330 million to $2.79 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $459 million to $2.50 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $996 million to $276.48 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.13 billion to $11.80 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 64.6% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 89.7% of all Institutional MMF totals.
