The Investment Company Institute released its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" and "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" for October 2021 yesterday. ICI's monthly "Trends" report shows that money fund assets increased $11.1 billion in October to $4.554 trillion. This follows increases of $6.4 billion in September and $25.5 in August, decreases of $24.4 billion in July and $73.4 billion in June, and increases of $78.6 billion in May and $31.9 billion in April. MMFs increased by $129.4 billion in March and $39.4 billion in February, but decreased $5.2 billion in January, $10.0 billion in December and $12.0 billion in November. For the 12 months through Oct. 31, 2021, money fund assets have increased by $197.1 billion, or 4.5%. (Month-to-date in November through 11/26, MMF assets have increased by $67.6 billion according to Crane's MFI Daily.)
The monthly release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $828.94 billion, or 3.2 percent, to $26.75 trillion in October, 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 $13.81 billion in October, compared with an inflow of $28.51 billion in September.... Money market funds had an inflow of $10.97 billion in October, compared with an inflow of $6.31 billion in September. In October funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $16.31 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $5.34 billion."
The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable funds saw gains while Tax Exempt MMFs saw losses last month. Taxable MMFs increased by $12.2 billion in October to $4.466 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs decreased $1.1 billion to $87.7 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $221.3 billion (5.2%), while Tax-Exempt funds fell by $24.2 billion over the past year (-21.6%). Bond fund assets increased by $6.9 billion in October to a $5.607 trillion; they've risen by $605.0 billion (12.1%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 17.0% of all mutual fund assets (down 0.5% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 21.0%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 307, the same number as the prior month and down from 347 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 247 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 60 funds.
ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirms the huge rebound in Treasuries and drop in Repo last month. Repurchase Agreements remained the largest composition segment in October, though repos fell by $77.2 billion, or -3.8%, to $1.978 trillion, or 44.3% of holdings. Repo holdings have increased $1.019 trillion, or 106.2%, over the past year. (See our Nov. 10 News, "Nov. MF Portfolio Holdings: Treasuries Recover But Repo Still No. 1.")
Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds rebounded sharply but remained the second largest composition segment. Treasury holdings jumped $139.0 billion, or 8.7%, to $1.730 trillion, or 38.7% of holdings. Treasury securities have decreased by $498.5 trillion, or -22.4%, over the past 12 months. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they decreased $33.9 billion, or -7.6%, to $413.6 billion, or 9.3% of holdings. Agency holdings have fallen by $255.1 billion, or -38.1%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) remained in fourth place; they increased by $33.2 billion, or 21.8%, to $185.5 billion (4.2% of assets). CDs held by money funds shrank by $3.2 billion, or -1.7%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper took fifth place, up $3.6 billion, or 2.4%, to $153.2 billion (3.4% of assets). CP has decreased by $16.8 billion, or -9.9%, over one year. Other holdings decreased to $23.8 billion (0.5% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) were down to $3.3 billion (0.1% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds decreased to 45.938 million, while the Number of Funds was flat at 247. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 5.973 million and the number of funds decreased by 23. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 37 days, up three days from September. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have decreased by 8.
