ICI: Money Fund Assets Inch Higher
ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows MMFs increasing over the past week, their 4th gain in the last 5 weeks. Money fund assets are up $20 billion, or 0.5%, year-to-date, with Inst MMFs up $23 billion (1.0%) and Retail MMFs up $3 billion (-0.2%). Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets have increased by $692 billion, or 19.1%, with Retail MMFs rising by $137 billion (9.9%) and Inst MMFs rising by $555 billion (24.8%). ICI says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $6.21 billion to $4.32 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, February 10.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $11.68 billion and prime funds decreased by $3.89 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $1.58 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $15.1 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $8.9 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.675 trillion (85.1% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $537.9 billion (12.5%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $104.5 billion (2.4%). (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 $8.93 billion to $1.52 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $3.15 billion to $1.17 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $4.87 billion to $266.06 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $918 million to $91.86 billion." Retail assets account for just over a third of total assets, or 35.3%, and Government Retail assets make up 76.5% of all Retail MMFs. ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $15.14 billion to $2.79 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $14.82 billion to $2.51 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $982 million to $271.85 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $665 million to $12.65 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 64.7% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 89.8% of all Institutional MMF totals.
