The Investment Company Institute released its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" and "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" for February 2021 yesterday. Their monthly "Trends" report shows that money fund assets increased $39.4 billion in February to $4.368 trillion. This follows decreases of $5.2 billion in January, $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 Feb. 28, 2021, money fund assets have increased by a huge $720.7 billion, or 19.8%. (Month-to-date in March, through 3/29, MMF assets have increased by $109.6 billion according to our MFI Daily.)
ICI's release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $455.50 billion, or 1.9 percent, to $24.29 trillion in February, 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 $60.21 billion in February, compared with an inflow of $74.26 billion in January.... Money market funds had an inflow of $39.38 billion in February, compared with an outflow of $5.29 billion in January. In February funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $56.10 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $16.71 billion."
The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable MMFs gained assets last month while Tax Exempt MMFs lost assets. Taxable MMFs increased by $44.1 billion in February to $4.267 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs decreased $4.7 billion to $101.0 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $754.4 trillion (21.5%), while Tax-Exempt funds fell by $33.7 billion over the past year (-25.0%). Bond fund assets increased by $9.0 billion in February (0.2%) to $5.292 trillion (they broke above the $5.0 trillion level in October); they've risen by $407.8 billion (8.3%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 18.0% of all mutual fund assets (down 0.2% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 21.8%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 331 down nine from the month prior and down from 361 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 263 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 68 funds.
ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirms increases in Repo, CP, CD, Notes, and Other securities, and decreases in Treasuries and Agencies. Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds remain the largest composition segment (since surpassing Repo last April). Treasury holdings decreased by $31.9 billion, or -1.4%, to $2.221 trillion, or 52.1% of holdings. Treasury securities have increased by $1.262 trillion, or 131.6%, over the past 12 months. (See our March MF Portfolio Holdings: Repo Jumps; Treasuries, Agencies Decline.")
Repurchase Agreements were in second place among composition segments; they increased by $65.3 billion, or 6.8%, to $1.023 trillion, or 24.0 % of holdings. Repo holdings have dropped $236.7 billion, or -18.8%, over the past year. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they decreased $8.8 billion, or -1.4%, to $607.4 billion, or 14.2% of holdings. Agency holdings have fallen by $117.7 billion, or -16.2%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) remained in fourth place; they increased by $9.9 billion, or 5.3%, to $198.9 billion (4.7% of assets). CDs held by money funds shrunk by $107.9 billion, or -35.2%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper took fifth place, up $6.5 billion, or 3.6%, to $189.5 billion (4.4% of assets). CP has decreased by $48.5 billion, or -20.4%, over one year. Other holdings increased to $27.6 billion (0.6% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) were up to $4.7 billion (0.1% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased to 42.410 million, while the Number of Funds was down two at 263. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 4.295 million and the number of funds decreased by 18. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 46 days, down one from January. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have increased by 14.
In related news, Crane Data also published its latest Weekly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics Tuesday, which track a shifting subset of our monthly Portfolio Holdings collection. The most recent cut (with data as of Mar. 26, 2021) includes Holdings information from 69 money funds (down 24 funds from a week ago), which represent $2.084 trillion (down from $2.740 trillion) of the $4.701 trillion (44.3%) in total money fund assets tracked by Crane Data. (Our Weekly MFPH are e-mail only and aren't available on the website.)
Our latest Weekly MFPH Composition summary again shows Government assets dominating the holdings list with Treasury totaling $1.102 trillion (down from $1.462 trillion a week ago), or 52.9%, Repurchase Agreements (Repo) totaling $537.4 billion (down from $676.1 billion a week ago), or 25.8% and Government Agency securities totaling $239.5 billion (down from $318.3 billion), or 11.5%. Commercial Paper (CP) totaled $71.5 billion (down from $101.8 billion), or 3.4%. Certificates of Deposit (CDs) totaled $51.7 billion (down from $65.0 billion), or 2.5%. The Other category accounted for $56.8 billion or 2.7%, while VRDNs accounted for $25.6 billion, or 1.2%.
The Ten Largest Issuers in our Weekly Holdings product include: the US Treasury with $1.105 trillion (53.0% of total holdings), Federal Home Loan Bank with $120.5B (5.8%), Fixed Income Clearing Corp with $69.4B (3.3%), BNP Paribas with $53.8B (2.6%), Federal Farm Credit Bank with $47.2B (2.3%), JP Morgan with $44.5B (2.1%), RBC with $44.1B (2.1%), Federal National Mortgage Association with $42.0B (2.0%), Barclays PLC with $33.2B (1.6%) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp with $28.3B (1.4%).
The Ten Largest Funds tracked in our latest Weekly include: JPMorgan US Govt MM ($218.9 billion), BlackRock Lq FedFund ($168.8B), Wells Fargo Govt MM ($135.9B), Fidelity Inv MM: Govt Port ($135.2B), BlackRock Lq T-Fund ($116.2B), Morgan Stanley Inst Liq Govt ($114.0B), JPMorgan 100% US Treas MMkt ($99.7B), Dreyfus Govt Cash Mgmt ($92.7B), First American Govt Oblg ($87.0B) and State Street Inst US Govt ($80.0B). (Let us know if you'd like to see our latest domestic U.S. and/or "offshore" Weekly Portfolio Holdings collection and summary, or our Bond Fund Portfolio Holdings data series.)
