Money Fund Assets Inch Higher
ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows assets higher in the latest week, their third (modest) increase in the past 4 weeks. Their release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $9.24 billion to $4.51 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, August 11, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $18.74 billion and prime funds decreased by $8.47 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $1.03 billion." Money fund assets are up by $213 billion, or 5.0%, year-to-date in 2021. Inst MMFs are up $312 billion (11.3%), while Retail MMFs are down $99 billion (-6.5%). ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $7.9 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $1.4 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.944 trillion (87.4% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $475.0 billion (10.5%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $91.3 billion (2.0%). Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets have decreased by $45 billion, or -1.0%, with Retail MMFs falling by $109 billion (-7.1%) and Inst MMFs rising by $64 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.) ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $1.36 billion to $1.43 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $3.49 billion to $1.13 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.84 billion to $221.36 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $283 million to $79.81 billion." Retail assets account for just under a third of total assets, or 31.6%, and Government Retail assets make up 78.9% of all Retail MMFs. ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $7.88 billion to $3.08 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $15.26 billion to $2.82 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $6.63 billion to $253.63 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $745 million to $11.43 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 68.4% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 91.4% of all Institutional MMF totals.
