The Investment Company Institute (ICI) released its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report, as well as its monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" and "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" for December 2020 yesterday. The first release shows money fund assets rising in the latest week, their 3rd increase over the past 4 weeks. Money fund assets are up $29 billion, or 0.8%, year-to-date in 2021, with Inst MMFs up $30 billion (1.3%), and Retail MMFs up $1 billion (0.0%). Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets have increased by $705 billion, or 20.1%, with Retail MMFs rising by $149 billion (11.1%) and Inst MMFs rising by $557 billion (25.6%).
ICI says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $19.45 billion to $4.33 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, January 27.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $16.03 billion and prime funds increased by $3.89 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $467 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $25.0 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $5.6 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.674 trillion (84.9% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $546.0 billion (12.6%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $106.1 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 $5.55 billion to $1.53 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $2.92 billion to $1.16 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.94 billion to $273.16 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $690 million to $92.93 billion." Retail assets account for just over a third of total assets, or 35.3%, and Government Retail assets make up 76.0% of all Retail MMFs.
ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $25.00 billion to $2.80 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $18.95 billion to $2.52 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $5.82 billion to $272.81 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $223 million to $13.21 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 64.7% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 89.8% of all Institutional MMF totals.
Their monthly "Trends" report shows that money fund assets decreased $10 billion in December to $4.335 trillion. They decreased $12 billion in November, $47.6 billion in October, $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 Dec. 31, 2020, money fund assets have increased by a healthy $703.0 billion, or 19.4%. (Month-to-date in January, MMF assets have decreased by $9.0 billion through 1/27, according to our MFI Daily.)
ICI's monthly release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $621.19 billion, or 2.7 percent, to $23.90 trillion in December, 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 $61.37 billion in December, compared with an inflow of $42.86 billion in November.... Money market funds had an outflow of $10.01 billion in December, compared with an outflow of $11.65 billion in November. In December funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $8.78 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $1.23 billion."
ICI's latest statistics show that both Taxable MMFs and Tax Exempt MMFs lost assets last month. Taxable MMFs decreased by $7.3 billion in December to $4.230 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs decreased $2.7 billion to $105.5 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $735.1 trillion (21.0%), while Tax-Exempt funds fell by $32.1 billion over the past year (-23.3%). Bond fund assets increased by $92.4 billion in December (1.8%) to $5.214 trillion (they broke above the $5.0 trillion level in October); they've risen by $509.8 billion (10.8%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 18.1% of all mutual fund assets (down 0.6% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 21.8%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 340, down five from the month prior and down from 364 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 265 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 75 funds.
ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirms increases in Treasuries, CP and "Other" holdings, and decreases in Repo, Agencies, CDs and Notes in December. Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds remain the largest composition segment (since surpassing Repo last April). Treasury holdings increased by $33.9 billion, or 1.5%, to $2.256 trillion, or 53.3% of holdings. Treasury securities have increased by $1.220 trillion, or 117.8%, over the past 12 months. (See our January 13 News, "January MF Portfolio Holdings: Treasuries Still Rule; TDs, Repo Drop.")
Repurchase Agreements were in second place among composition segments; they decreased by $12.6 billion, or -1.2%, to $1.008 trillion, or 23.8% of holdings. Repo holdings have dropped $171.8 billion, or -14.6%, over the past year. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they decreased $16.7 billion, or -2.6%, to $629.8 billion, or 14.9% of holdings. Agency holdings have fallen by $125.1 billion, or -16.6%, over the past 12 months.
Commercial Paper rose to fourth place, up $5.5 billion, or 3.4%, to $168.0 billion (4.0% of assets). CP has decreased by $64.2 billion, or -27.7%, over one year. Certificates of Deposit (CDs) fell to fifth place; they decreased by $42.5 billion, or -23.2%, to $140.8 billion (3.3% of assets). CDs held by money funds shrunk by $123.6 billion, or -46.7%, over 12 months. Other holdings increased to $29.5 billion (0.7% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) were down to $4.7 billion (0.1% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased to 41.042 million, while the Number of Funds was down five at 265. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 3.819 million and the number of funds decreased by 19. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 48 days, up three from November. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have increased by 11.
