The Investment Company Institute 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 January 2021 yesterday. The first release shows money fund assets rising again, the 6th increase in the past 7 weeks. Money fund assets are up $47 billion, or 1.3%, year-to-date in 2021. Inst MMFs up $59 billion (2.6%), while Retail MMFs down $12 billion (-0.9%). Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets have increased by $710 billion, or 20.2%, with Retail MMFs rising by $119 billion (8.9%) and Inst MMFs rising by $591 billion (27.2%).
ICI's "Assets" release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $10.94 billion to $4.34 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, February 24.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $19.71 billion and prime funds decreased by $7.05 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $1.73 trillion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $18.4 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $7.5 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.713 trillion (85.5% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $528.8 billion (12.2%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $101.9 billion (2.3%). (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.)
It explains, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $7.47 billion to $1.51 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $4.17 billion to $1.16 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $2.33 billion to $261.92 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $971 million to $90.61 billion." Retail assets account for just over a third of total assets, or 34.8%, and Government Retail assets make up 76.7% of all Retail MMFs.
ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $18.41 billion to $2.83 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $23.89 billion to $2.55 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $4.72 billion to $266.93 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $757 million to $11.31 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 65.2% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 90.2% of all Institutional MMF totals.
Their monthly "Trends" report shows that money fund assets decreased $5.2 billion in January to $4.328 trillion. They decreased $10.0 billion in December, $12.0 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 Jan. 21, 2021, money fund assets have increased by a massive $714.2 billion, or 19.8%. (Month-to-date in February, MMF assets have increased by $41.3 billion through 2/25, according to our MFI Daily.)
ICI's release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds decreased by $61.54 billion, or 0.3 percent, to $23.83 trillion in January, 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 $74.26 billion in January, compared with an inflow of $61.38 billion in December ... Money market funds had an outflow of $5.29 billion in January, compared with an outflow of $9.91 billion in December. In January funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $2.01 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $3.28 billion."
Their latest statistics show that Taxable MMFs lost assets last month while Tax Exempt MMFs gained assets. Taxable MMFs decreased by $5.5 billion in January to $4.222 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs increased $208 million to $105.7 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $744.6 trillion (21.4%), while Tax-Exempt funds fell by $30.4 billion over the past year (-22.3%). Bond fund assets increased by $74.3 billion in January (1.4%) to $5.281 trillion (they broke above the $5.0 trillion level in October); they've risen by $450.1 billion (9.3%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 18.2% of all mutual fund assets (up 0.1% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 22.2%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 339, down one from the month prior and down from 364 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 264 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 75 funds.
ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirms increases in Treasuries, CP, CD and Notes, and decreases in Repo, Agencies, and Other securities. Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds remain the largest composition segment (since surpassing Repo in April). Treasury holdings increased by $297 million, or 0.0%, to $2.256 trillion, or 53.4% of holdings. Treasury securities have increased by $1.301 trillion, or 136.4%, over the past 12 months. (See our February 10 News, "Feb. MF Port. Holdings: Treasuries Hit Record $2.57T; Repo Below $1T.")
Repurchase Agreements were in second place among composition segments; they decreased by $49.6 billion, or -4.9%, to $958.0 trillion, or 22.7% of holdings. Repo holdings have dropped $286.9 billion, or -23.0%, over the past year. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they decreased $13.5 billion, or -2.1%, to $616.2 billion, or 14.6% of holdings. Agency holdings have fallen by $101.8 billion, or -14.2%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) rose to fourth place; they increased by $48.0 billion, or 34.1%, to $188.9 billion (4.5% of assets). CDs held by money funds shrunk by $121.8 billion, or -39.2%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper fell to fifth place, up $14.5 billion, or 8.7%, to $182.5 billion (4.3% of assets). CP has decreased by $54.2 billion, or -22.9%, over one year. Other holdings decreased to $27.5 billion (0.7% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) were up to $5.1 billion (0.1% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased to 41.557 million, while the Number of Funds was down one at 264. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 3.860 million and the number of funds decreased by 20. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 47 days, down one from December. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have increased by 14.
