ICI 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 March 2022 yesterday. The former shows assets rebounding strongly after plummeting for 3 weeks in a row. The big jump follows last week's 8th largest weekly decline ever (which included the April 15 tax payment date). Year-to-date, MMFs are down by $195 billion, or -4.2%, with Institutional MMFs down $127 billion, or -3.9% and Retail MMFs down $68 billion, or -4.6%. Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets are down by $20 billion, or 0.4%, with Retail MMFs falling by $67 billion (-4.6%) and Inst MMFs rising by $47 billion (1.5%). (Month-to-date in April through 4/27, MMF assets have decreased by $54.0 billion to $4.960 trillion according to Crane's MFI Daily, which tracks a broader universe of funds.)
ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $41.33 billion to $4.51 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, April 27, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $39.83 billion and prime funds increased by $170 million. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $1.33 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs jumping by $50.0 billion but Retail MMFs decreasing $8.6 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.005 trillion (88.8% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $412.6 billion (9.1%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $91.8 billion (2.0%).
ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $8.64 billion to $1.40 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $10.01 billion to $1.12 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $241 million to $192.19 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.61 billion to $83.63 billion." Retail assets account for just under a third of total assets, or 31.1%, and Government Retail assets make up 80.3% of all Retail MMFs.
They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $49.97 billion to $3.11 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $49.84 billion to $2.88 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $411 million to $220.35 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $281 million to $8.18 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 68.9% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 92.6% 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.)
ICI's monthly "Trends" report shows that money fund assets increased $9.6 billion in March to $4.505 trillion. This follows a decrease of $38.3 billion in February, a decrease of $136.1 billion in January, increases of $136.1 billion in December (coincidentally the exact same size as January's decline), $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 and $129.4 billion in March. For the 12 months through Mar. 31, 2022, money fund assets increased by $107.7 billion, or 2.4%.
The monthly release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $86.22 billion, or 0.3 percent, to $25.29 trillion in March, 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 $44.54 billion in March, compared with an outflow of $34.46 billion in February.... Money market funds had an inflow of $11.69 billion in March, compared with an outflow of $37.56 billion in February. In March funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $1.38 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $10.31 billion."
The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable funds and Tax Exempt MMFs both saw gains last month. Taxable MMFs increased by $9.2 billion in March to $4.505 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs increased $2.5 billion to $87.3 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $107.7 billion (0.2%), while Tax-Exempt funds fell by $12.0 billion over the past year (-2.9%). Bond fund assets decreased by $162.5 billion in March to a $5.253 trillion, but they decreased by $49 billion (-0.01%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 18.2% of all mutual fund assets (up 0.2% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 20.8%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 302, unchanged from the prior month and down from 328 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 243 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 59 funds.
ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirms a drop in Treasuries last month and an increase in Repo. Repurchase Agreements remained the largest composition segment in March, increasing $52.8 billion, or 2.5%, to $2.191 trillion, or 48.6% of holdings. Repo holdings have increased $1.065 trillion, or 94.6%, over the past year. (See our April 12 News, "April MF Portfolio Holdings: Fed Repo Jumps; Treasuries, TDs Plunge.)
Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds sharply last month, but they remained the second largest composition segment. Treasury holdings decreased $57.5 billion, or -3.4%, to $1.637 trillion, or 36.3% of holdings. Treasury securities have decreased by $722.5 billion, or -30.6%, over the past 12 months. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they decreased $19.2 billion, or -5.1%, to $357.3 billion, or 7.9% of holdings. Agency holdings have fallen by $213.7 billion, or -37.4%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) reclaimed fourth place; they decreased by $44.0 billion, or -23.4%, to $144.3 billion (3.2% of assets). CDs held by money funds shrank by $42.2 billion, or -22.6%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper fell back to fifth place, but was down $12.8 billion, or -8.7%, to $134.5 billion (3.0% of assets). CP has decreased by $42.3 billion, or -23.9%, over one year. Other holdings increased to $28.6 billion (0.6% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) inched higher to $4.0 billion (0.1% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased to 58.757 million, while the Number of Funds unchanged this past month stay at 243. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 15.611 million and the number of funds decreased by 18. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 29 days, 1 day higher than February. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have decreased by 15.
