Assets Lower, But Retail Prime Up
Money fund assets inched lower again in the latest week, the 5th decline in the past 6 weeks, but Prime and Retail assets keep growing. The Investment Company Institute's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows assets down by $141 billion, or -3.0%, year-to-date, with Institutional MMFs down $179 billion, or -5.5% and Retail MMFs up $38 billion, or 2.6%. Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets are up by $60 billion, or 1.3%, with Retail MMFs rising by $79 billion (5.5%) and Inst MMFs falling by $19 billion (-0.6%). (For the month of Sept. through 9/7, MMF assets increased by $3.2 billion to $5.028 trillion according to Crane's MFI XLS, which tracks a broader universe of funds than ICI. Crane Data's Prime asset total is currently $943.5 billion.) ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $3.27 billion to $4.56 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, September 7, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $11.62 billion and prime funds increased by $8.22 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $120 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs decreasing $17.8 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $14.5 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.947 trillion (86.5% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $515.1 billion (11.3%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $102.3 billion (2.2%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $14.51 billion to $1.51 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $6.17 billion to $1.13 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $7.82 billion to $283.69 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $517 million to $91.40 billion." Retail assets account for just under a third of total assets, or 33.0%, and Government Retail assets make up 75.1% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $17.78 billion to $3.06 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $17.79 billion to $2.82 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $406 million to $231.40 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $397 million to $10.93 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 67.0% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 92.1% 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 over $400 billion lower than Crane's asset series.)
