The Investment Company Institute released its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report, which shows MMFs jumping by $54.3 billion, and its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" and "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" for March 2021. The monthly "Trends" report shows that money fund assets increased $129.4 billion in March to $4.497 trillion. This follows an increase of $39.4 billion in February and decreases of $5.2 billion in January, $10.0 billion in December and $12.0 billion in November. Assets also fell $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 and $399.4 billion in April. For the 12 months through March 31, 2021, money fund assets have increased by $159.5 billion, or 3.7%. (Month-to-date in April, through 4/28, MMF assets have increased by $50.2 billion according to our MFI Daily.)
ICI's weekly "Assets" release shows money fund assets up $232 billion, or 5.4%, year-to-date in 2021. Inst MMFs are up $291 billion (10.5%), while Retail MMFs are down $59 billion (-3.9%). Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets have decreased by $204 billion, or -5.4%, with Retail MMFs falling by $87 billion (-6.1%) and Inst MMFs falling by $117 billion (-5.0%). ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $62.9 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $3.5 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.928 trillion (86.7% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $504.8 billion (11.1%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $96.6 billion (2.1%). (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.)
The release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $59.35 billion to $4.53 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, April 28.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $57.17 billion and prime funds increased by $1.3.05 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $863 million."
It explains, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $3.50 billion to $1.47 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $1.90 billion to $1.14 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.03 billion to $245.11 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $575 million to $85.86 billion." Retail assets account for just under a third of total assets, or 32.4%, and Government Retail assets make up 77.4% of all Retail MMFs.
ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $62.86 billion to $3.06 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $59.06 billion to $2.79 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $4.09 billion to $259.66 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $288 million to $10.73 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 67.6% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 91.2% of all Institutional MMF totals.
Their monthly release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $476.12 billion, or 2.0 percent, to $24.77 trillion in March, 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 $39.14 billion in March, compared with an inflow of $60.21 billion in February.... Money market funds had an inflow of $129.49 billion in March, compared with an inflow of $39.38 billion in February. In March funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $145.81 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $16.32 billion."
The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable MMFs gained assets last month while Tax Exempt MMFs lost assets. Taxable MMFs increased by $131.2 billion in March to $4.398 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs decreased $1.8 billion to $99.3 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $188.5 trillion (4.5%), while Tax-Exempt funds fell by $29.0 billion over the past year (-22.6%). Bond fund assets increased by $10.2 billion in March to $5.302 trillion (they broke above the $5.0 trillion level in October); they've risen by $884.8 billion (20.0%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 18.2% of all mutual fund assets (up 0.2% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 21.4%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 328 down three from the month prior and down from 360 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 261 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 67 funds.
ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirms increases in Treasuries, Repo, Notes, and Other securities, and decreases in CP, CD and Agencies. Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds remain the largest composition segment (since surpassing Repo last April). Treasury holdings increased by $140.9 billion, or 6.3%, to $2.362 trillion, or 53.7% of holdings. Treasury securities have increased by $1.096 trillion, or 86.6%, over the past 12 months. (See our April MF Portfolio Holdings: T-Bills, Repo Skyrocket; Agencies, TDs Dip.")
Repurchase Agreements were in second place among composition segments; they increased by $97.1 billion, or9.5%, to $1.120 trillion, or 25.5% of holdings. Repo holdings have dropped $351.3 billion, or -23.9%, over the past year. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they decreased $33.9 billion, or -5.6%, to $573.5 billion, or 13.0% of holdings. Agency holdings have fallen by $426.8 billion, or -42.7%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) remained in fourth place; they decreased by $12.8 billion, or -6.4%, to $186.1 billion (4.2% of assets). CDs held by money funds shrunk by $54.4 billion, or -22.6%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper took fifth place, down $12.2 billion, or -6.4%, to $177.3 billion (4.0% of assets). CP has decreased by $43.3 billion, or -19.6%, over one year. Other holdings increased to $27.8 billion (0.6% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) were up to $4.9 billion (0.1% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased to 43.146 million, while the Number of Funds was down two at 261. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 3.820 million and the number of funds decreased by 19. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 44 days, down two from February. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have increased by 8.
