Money Fund Assets Retreat Says ICI
ICI's "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows MMFs falling in the latest week after increasing in 3 of the previous 4 weeks. Money fund assets are up $16 billion, or 0.4%, year-to-date, with Inst MMFs up $10 billion (0.4%) and Retail MMFs up $6 billion (0.5%). Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets have increased by $696 billion, or 19.8%, with Retail MMFs rising by $148 billion (11.0%) and Inst MMFs rising by $448 billion (20.6%). ICI says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $13.34 billion to $4.31 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, February 3.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $9.12 billion and prime funds decreased by $4.16 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $55 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs decreasing $20.2 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $6.9 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.665 trillion (85.0% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $541.8 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 increased by $6.89 billion to $1.53 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $9.27 billion to $1.17 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $2.22 billion to $270.93 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $153 million to $92.77 billion." Retail assets account for just over a third of total assets, or 35.5%, and Government Retail assets make up 76.3% of all Retail MMFs. ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $20.23 billion to $2.78 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $18.39 billion to $2.50 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.94 billion to $270.87 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $97 million to $13.31 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 89.8% of all Institutional MMF totals.
