MMF Assets Jump Again on Week
ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows assets jumping for the second week in a row, following a sharp tax-related drop on Sept. 15. The release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $29.11 billion to $4.54 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, September 29, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $33.33 billion and prime funds decreased by $3.81 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $419 million." Money fund assets are up by $247 billion, or 5.7%, year-to-date in 2021. Inst MMFs are up $341 billion (12.3%), while Retail MMFs are down $95 billion (-6.2%). ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $28.6 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $0.5 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.989 trillion (87.8% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $465.6 billion (10.2%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $89.3 billion (2.0%). Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets have increased by $140 billion, or 3.2%, with Retail MMFs falling by $94 billion (-6.1%) and Inst MMFs rising by $233 billion (8.1%). (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 Crane's asset series.) ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $484 million to $1.43 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $1.30 billion to $1.14 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $834 million to $214.07 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $19 million to $78.50 billion." Retail assets account for just under a third of total assets, or 31.5%, and Government Retail assets make up 79.6% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $28.62 billion to $3.11 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $32.03 billion to $2.85 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $2.97 billion to $251.50 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $438 million to $10.79 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 68.5% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 91.6% of all Institutional MMF totals.
