The Investment Company Institute released its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report, as well as its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" and "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" for December 2021 Thursday. The former shows assets rebounding strongly (up $28.6B) after falling sharply in the first three weeks of January (down $88.5B). This followed 8 straight weeks of gains at year end where assets rose by $150.6 billion. Year-to-date, MMFs are down by $60 billion, or -1.3%. Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets have increased by $321 billion, or 7.4%, with Retail MMFs falling by $40 billion (-2.6%) and Inst MMFs rising by $361 billion (12.9%). (Note: Thanks again to those who attended and supported our Money Fund University "basic training" event last week! Crane Data Subscribers and MFU Attendees may access the Powerpoints and recordings via our "Money Fund University 2022 Download Center." We also hope to see some of you live in 2 months at our next event, Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 28-29 in Newport Beach, Calif.)
ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $28.59 billion to $4.65 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, January 26, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $31.78 billion and prime funds decreased by $2.41 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $771 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $19.1 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $9.5 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.120 trillion (88.7% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $438.6 billion (9.4%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $86.6 billion (1.9%).
ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $9.48 billion to $1.49 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $11.84 billion to $1.21 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.76 billion to $201.81 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $601 million to $76.80 billion." Retail assets account for just under a third of total assets, or 32.0%, and Government Retail assets make up 81.2% of all Retail MMFs.
They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $19.11 billion to $3.16 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $19.94 billion to $2.91 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $654 million to $236.73 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $170 million to $9.80 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 68.0% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 92.2% of all Institutional MMF totals. (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's monthly "Trends" report shows that money fund assets surged $136.1 billion in December to $4.756 trillion. This follows increases of $65.5 billion in November, $11.1 billion in October, $6.4 billion in September and $25.5 in August. MMFs decreased $24.4 billion in July and $73.4 billion in June, but increased $78.6 billion in May, $31.9 billion in April, $129.4 billion in March and $39.4 billion in February. Assets decreased $5.2 billion in January 2021. For the 12 months through Dec. 31, 2021, money fund assets increased by $422.6 billion, or 9.8%. (Month-to-date in January through 1/26, MMF assets have decreased by $113.5 billion to $5.038 trillion according to Crane's MFI Daily, which tracks a broader universe of funds.)
The monthly release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $565.99 billion, or 2.1 percent, to $26.96 trillion in December, 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 outflow of $10.30 billion in December, compared with an inflow of $16.59 billion in November.... Money market funds had an inflow of $136.27 billion in December, compared with an inflow of $65.42 billion in November. In December funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $87.84 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $48.43 billion."
The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable funds saw gains while Tax Exempt MMFs saw losses yet again last month. Taxable MMFs increased by $136.3 billion in December to $4.669 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs decreased $0.1 billion to $86.8 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $441.3 billion (10.4%), while Tax-Exempt funds fell by $18.7 billion over the past year (-17.7%). Bond fund assets decreased by $7.6 billion in December to a $5.622 trillion, but they rose by $407.8 billion (7.8%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 17.6% of all mutual fund assets (up 0.1% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 20.9%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 305, down two from the prior month and down from 340 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 245 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 60 funds.
ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirms yet another huge jump in Repo last month. Repurchase Agreements expanded their lead as the largest composition segment in December, rising $212.6 billion, or 10.1%, to $2.328 trillion, or 49.9% of holdings. Repo holdings have increased $1.320 trillion, or 131.0%, over the past year. (See our Jan. 12 News, "Jan. MF Portfolio Holdings: Repo Soars to Almost 50%, Led by Fed RRP.)
Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds inched lower again but remained the second largest composition segment. Treasury holdings declined $2.6 billion, or -0.2%, to $1.694 trillion, or 36.3% of holdings. Treasury securities have decreased by $561.0 trillion, or -24.9%, over the past 12 months. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they decreased $23.5 billion, or -5.8%, to $378.9 billion, or 8.1% of holdings. Agency holdings have fallen by $250.7 billion, or -39.8%, over the past 12 months.
Commercial Paper moved up to fourth place, but was down $11.5 billion, or -7.8%, to $136.8 billion (2.9% of assets). CP has decreased by $31.2 billion, or -18.6%, over one year. Certificates of Deposit (CDs) fell to fifth place; they decreased by $64.7 billion, or -35.7%, to $116.5 billion (2.5% of assets). CDs held by money funds shrank by $24.4 billion, or -17.3%, over 12 months. Other holdings increased to $27.1 billion (0.6% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) remained flat at $3.0 billion (0.1% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased to 47.966 million, while the Number of Funds dropped by two funds to 245. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 6.924 million and the number of funds decreased by 20. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 36 days, one day lower than November. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have decreased by 12.
