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 April 2022 Thursday. The former shows assets rebounding strongly after two weeks of declines. Year-to-date, MMFs are down by $176 billion, or -3.7%, with Institutional MMFs down $129 billion, or -4.0% and Retail MMFs down $48 billion, or -3.3%. Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets are down by $80 billion, or -1.7%, with Retail MMFs falling by $21 billion (-1.4%) and Inst MMFs falling by $59 billion (-1.9%). (Month-to-date in May through 5/25, MMF assets have decreased by $1.4 billion to $4.972 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 $44.04 billion to $4.53 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, May 25, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $36.51 billion and prime funds increased by $6.27 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $1.26 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs jumping $41.1 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $2.9 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.009 trillion (88.5% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $420.3 billion (9.3%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $99.4 billion (2.2%).
ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $2.94 billion to $1.42 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $1.08 billion to $1.13 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.78 billion to $201.55 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.24 billion to $89.19 billion." Retail assets account for just under a third of total assets, or 31.4%, and Government Retail assets make up 79.5% of all Retail MMFs.
They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $41.10 billion to $3.11 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $37.58 billion to $2.88 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $3.49 billion to $218.75 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $21 million to $10.19 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 68.6% 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 decreased $71.0 billion in April to $4.521 trillion. This follows an increase of $9.6 billion in March, 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. For the 12 months through April 30, 2022, money fund assets decreased by $7.6 billion, or -0.0%.
The monthly release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds decreased by $1.56 trillion, or 6.2 percent, to $23.74 trillion in April, 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 $56.27 billion in April, compared with an outflow of $44.57 billion in March.... Money market funds had an outflow of $71.33 billion in April, compared with an inflow of $11.50 billion in March. In April funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $33.68 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $37.65 billion."
The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable funds and Tax Exempt MMFs moved in different directions last month. Taxable MMFs decreased by $76.3 billion in April to $4.429 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs increased $5.3 billion to $92.6 billion. Taxable MMF assets decreased year-over-year by $4.0 billion (-0.0%), and Tax-Exempt funds fell by $3.7 billion over the past year (-3.8%). Bond fund assets decreased by $209.9 billion in April to a $5.043 trillion, but they decreased by $355.5 billion (-6.6%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 19.0% of all mutual fund assets (up 0.8% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 21.2%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 301, down 1 from the prior month and down from 326 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 242 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 CDs. Repurchase Agreements remained the largest composition segment in April, decreasing $15.2 billion, or -0.7%, to $2.176 trillion, or 49.1% of holdings. Repo holdings have increased $1.016 trillion, or 87.6%, over the past year. (See our May 11 News, "May MF Portfolio Holdings: Treasuries Plummet, Time Deposits Higher.)
Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds fell sharply again last month, but they remained the second largest composition segment. Treasury holdings decreased $76.1 billion, or -4.6%, to $1.561 trillion, or 35.2% of holdings. Treasury securities have decreased by $777.7 billion, or -33.3%, over the past 12 months. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they decreased $217 million, or -0.1%, to $357.0 billion, or 8.1% of holdings. Agency holdings have fallen by $202.4 billion, or -36.2%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) remained in fourth place; they jumped by $29.8 billion, or 20.7%, to $173.8 billion (3.9% of assets). CDs held by money funds shrank by $22.4 billion, or -11.4%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper remained in fifth place, down $6.8 billion, or -5.1%, to $127.5 billion (2.9% of assets). CP has decreased by $49.5 billion, or -28.0%, over one year. Other holdings decreased to $26.8 billion (0.6% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) fell to $3.0 billion (0.1% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds decreased to 57.275 million, while the Number of Funds decreased by one this past month to 242. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 13.854 million and the number of funds decreased by 17. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 28 days, 1 day lower than March. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have decreased by 14.
