MMFs Steep Asset Slide Continues
ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows assets plummeting for the third week in a row and for the fifth week out of the past seven. It was the 8th largest weekly decline ever. Assets have declined by $121.9 billion over 3 weeks and by $137.6 billion over 7 weeks. Year-to-date, MMFs are down by $237 billion, or -5.0% <b:>`_, with Institutional MMFs down $177 billion, or -5.5% and Retail MMFs down $59 billion, or -4.0%. Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets are flat, decreasing by $2 billion, or 0.0%, with Retail MMFs falling by $61 billion (-4.2%) and Inst MMFs rising by $59 billion (2.0%). ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $61.28 billion to $4.47 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, April 20, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $56.02 billion and prime funds decreased by $3.97 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $1.29 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs falling $41.8 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $19.5 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.966 trillion (88.7% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $412.4 billion (9.2%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $90.5 billion (2.0%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $19.48 billion to $1.41 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $16.44 billion to $1.13 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $2.29 billion to $192.44 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $752 million to $82.02 billion." Retail assets account for just under a third of total assets, or 31.5%, and Government Retail assets make up 80.5% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $41.80 billion to $3.06 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $39.59 billion to $2.83 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.68 billion to $219.94 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $535 million to $8.46 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 68.5% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 92.5% 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 approximately $400 billion lower than Crane's asset series.)
