ICI: Money Fund Assets Retreat
ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows MMFs falling, after rising the first two weeks of 2021. Money fund assets are up $10 billion, or 0.3%, year-to-date, with Inst MMFs up $5 billion (0.2%) and Retail MMFs up $5 billion (0.4%). Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets have increased by $673 billion, or 19.2%, with Retail MMFs rising by $152 billion (11.4%) and Inst MMFs rising by $521 billion (24.0%). ICI says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $8.29 billion to $4.31 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, January 20.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $7.39 billion and prime funds decreased by $1.24 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $337 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs decreasing $4.8 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $3.5 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.658 trillion (84.9% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $542.1 billion (12.6%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $106.6 billion (2.5%). (Note that ICI's asset totals don't include a number of funds tracked by the SEC and Crane Data, so they're almost $400 billion lower than our asset series.) They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $3.49 billion to $1.53 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $1.52 billion to $1.16 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.85 billion to $275.09 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $121 million to $93.62 billion." Retail assets account for just over a third of total assets, or 35.5%, and Government Retail assets make up 75.9% of all Retail MMFs. ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $4.80 billion to $2.78 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $5.87 billion to $2.50 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $612 million to $266.99 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $457 million to $12.99 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 89.9% of all Institutional MMF totals.
