The Investment Company Institute released its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" and "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" for May 2021. The monthly "Trends" report shows that money fund assets increased $78.6 billion in May to $4.608 trillion. This follows increases of $31.9 billion in April, $129.4 billion in March and $39.4 billion in February. But MMFs decreased $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. For the 12 months through May 31, 2021, money fund assets have decreased by $160.5 billion, or -3.4%. (Month-to-date in June through 6/28, MMF assets have decreased by $56.7 billion according to Crane's MFI Daily.)
Their monthly release states, "The combined assets of the nation’s mutual funds increased by $248.55 billion, or 1.0 percent, to $25.80 trillion in May, 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 $22.54 billion in May, compared with an inflow of $52.82 billion in April.... Money market funds had an inflow of $78.92 billion in May, compared with an inflow of $31.92 billion in April. In May funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $96.39 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $17.47 billion."
The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable MMFs gained assets last month while Tax Exempt MMFs lost assets (again). Taxable MMFs increased by $82.0 billion in May to $4.515 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs decreased $3.4 billion to $92.9 billion. Taxable MMF assets decreased year-over-year by $119.6 billion (-2.6%), while Tax-Exempt funds fell by $40.9 billion over the past year (-30.6%). Bond fund assets increased by $41.7 billion in May to a record $5.440 trillion; they've risen by $842.1 billion (18.3%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 17.9% of all mutual fund assets (up 0.2% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 21.1%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 316 down 10 from the month prior and down from 358 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 251 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 65 funds.
ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirm the massive spike in Repo and the giant drop in Treasuries last month. But Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds still remain the largest composition segment (since surpassing Repo last April). Treasury holdings plunged $138.0 billion, or -7.3%, to $2.219 trillion, or 49.1% of holdings. Treasury securities have decreased by $74.5 trillion, or 3.2%, over the past 12 months. (See our June MF Portfolio Holdings: Repo Skyrockets Led by RRP; T-Bills Plunge.")
Repurchase Agreements were the second largest composition segment; repos jumped by $191.0 billion, or 16.5%, to $1.351 trillion, or 29.9% of holdings. Repo holdings have increased $319.1 billion, or 30.9%, over the past year. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they decreased $18.9 billion, or -3.4%, to $540.5 billion, or 12.0% of holdings. Agency holdings have fallen by $354.1 billion, or -39.6%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) remained in fourth place; they decreased by $801 million, or -0.4%, to $195.5 billion (4.3% of assets). CDs held by money funds shrank by $43.2 billion, or -18.1%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper took fifth place, down $8.2 billion, or -4.6%, to $168.7 billion (3.7% of assets). CP has decreased by $44.3 billion, or -20.8%, over one year. Other holdings increased to $29.6 billion (0.7% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) were down to $4.0 billion (0.1% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased to 43.934 million, while the Number of Funds was down by 8 to 251. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 4.626 million and the number of funds decreased by 27. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 37 days, down 5 days from April. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have decreased by 6.
In other news, Crane Data 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 June 25, 2021) includes Holdings information from 55 money funds (down 17 funds from a week ago), which represent $1.774 trillion (down from $2.594 trillion) of the $4.947 trillion (35.9%) 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 $846.5 billion (down from $1.284 trillion a week ago), or 47.7%, Repurchase Agreements (Repo) totaling $561.0 billion (down from $884.2 billion a week ago), or 31.6% and Government Agency securities totaling $155.2 billion (down from $233.8 billion), or 8.7%. Commercial Paper (CP) totaled $60.0 billion (down from $64.7 billion), or 3.4%. Certificates of Deposit (CDs) totaled $50.7 billion (up from $47.4 billion), or 2.9%. The Other category accounted for $73.5 billion or 4.1%, while VRDNs accounted for $27.1 billion, or 1.5%.
The Ten Largest Issuers in our Weekly Holdings product include: the US Treasury with $846.5 billion (47.7% of total holdings), Federal Reserve Bank of New York with $202.5B (11.4%), Federal Home Loan Bank with $85.2B (4.8%), BNP Paribas with $48.5B (2.7%), Fixed Income Clearing Corp with $35.8B (2.0%), Federal National Mortgage Association with $30.2B (1.7%), RBC with $27.5B (1.6%), JP Morgan with $27.1B (1.5%), Federal Farm Credit Bank with $25.3B (1.4%) and Barclays PLC with $20.8B (1.2%).
The Ten Largest Funds tracked in our latest Weekly include: JPMorgan US Govt MM ($248.4 billion), BlackRock Lq FedFund ($172.7B), Federated Hermes Govt Obl ($132.5B), Fidelity Inv MM: Govt Port ($129.7B), BlackRock Lq T-Fund ($119.3B), BlackRock Lq Treas Tr ($113.7B), Dreyfus Govt Cash Mgmt ($109.9B), JPMorgan 100% US Treas MMkt ($100.6B), JPMorgan Prime MM ($77.9B) and, Federated Hermes Treasury Oblig ($53.9B). (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.)
