A Prospectus Supplement filing for State Street ESG Liquid Reserves Fund states, "The Trust's Board of Trustees has approved a Plan of Liquidation and Termination of Series with respect to the Fund, pursuant to which the Fund is expected to be liquidated and terminated on or about October 28, 2022. The Plan authorizes the Fund and its investment adviser, SSGA Funds Management, Inc., to engage in such transactions as may be appropriate for the Fund's liquidation and dissolution, including, without limitation, the sale of Fund assets and payment of, and provision for, Fund liabilities in anticipation of the liquidation. Accordingly, during the period between the effective date of the Plan (September 15, 2022) and the Liquidation Date, the Fund will engage in business and activities solely for the purposes of winding down its business and affairs and making a distribution of its assets to shareholders, and it is possible the Fund will not pursue or achieve its investment objective. Furthermore, it is anticipated that during all, or a portion of, the Liquidation Period the Fund’s assets will be held exclusively in cash and/or cash equivalents." (For more on ESG & Social Money Market Funds, see our May 12 Crane Data News (and hotlinks at the end of that story), "UBS AM Explains Sustainability in Liquidity; Federated Adds SGD Shares.")
It explains, "In anticipation of the Fund's liquidation, the Fund will cease the sale of its shares to new shareholders upon the close of business on September 19, 2022; however, shares of the Fund may continue to be offered through intermediaries that currently have relationships with the Fund and to existing shareholders having accounts directly with the Fund. Effective upon the close of business on October 24, 2022, the Fund will no longer accept from Intermediary Relationships and/or existing shareholders orders to purchase additional shares. Existing shareholders of the Fund may, consistent with the requirements set forth in the applicable Prospectus, redeem their shares or exchange their shares into shares of the same class of any other series of the Trust at any time prior to the Liquidation Date as long as their applicable share class is available for incoming exchanges."
State Street writes, "On or prior to the Liquidation Date, the Fund will make one or more pro rata liquidating distributions consisting of substantially all the assets of the Fund, less the amount reserved to pay creditors of the Fund. Liquidating Distributions will be made to shareholders of record in accordance with instructions from such shareholders, provided that if a shareholder of record has not given instructions to the Fund by the time that the liquidation proceeds are distributed, the shareholder's liquidation proceeds may be distributed by the mailing of a check to such shareholder."
In other news, ICI released its latest monthly "Money Market Fund Holdings" summary, which reviews the aggregate daily and weekly liquid assets, regional exposure, and maturities (WAM and WAL) for Prime and Government money market funds.
The MMF Holdings release says, "The Investment Company Institute (ICI) reports that, as of the final Friday in August, prime money market funds held 36.3 percent of their portfolios in daily liquid assets and 51.2 percent in weekly liquid assets, while government money market funds held 87.4 percent of their portfolios in daily liquid assets and 93.6 percent in weekly liquid assets." Prime DLA was down from 36.5% in July, and Prime WLA was also down from 52.9%. Govt MMFs' DLA decreased from 88.2% in July and Govt WLA decreased from 93.8% the previous month.
ICI explains, "At the end of August, prime funds had a weighted average maturity (WAM) of 14 days and a weighted average life (WAL) of 53 days. Average WAMs and WALs are asset-weighted. Government money market funds had a WAM of 21 days and a WAL of 65 days." Prime WAMs were 3 days shorter and WALs were 2 days shorter from the previous month. Govt WAMs were 5 days shorter and WALs were 4 days shorter from July.
Regarding Holdings by Region of Issuer, the release tells us, "Prime money market funds' holdings attributable to the Americas rose from $212.71 billion in July to $232.50 billion in August. Government money market funds' holdings attributable to the Americas declined from $3,782.80 billion in July to $3,695.23 billion in August."
The Prime Money Market Funds by Region of Issuer table shows Americas-related holdings at $232.5 billion, or 45.8%; Asia and Pacific at $99.8 billion, or 19.7%; Europe at $168.8 billion, or 33.3%; and, Other (including Supranational) at $6.6 billion, or 1.4%. The Government Money Market Funds by Region of Issuer table shows Americas at $3.695 trillion, or 93.6%; Asia and Pacific at $77.7 billion, or 2.0%; Europe at $154.8 billion, 3.9%, and Other (Including Supranational) at $20.0 billion, or 0.5%.
Finally, the Investment Company Institute also published the release, "Retirement Assets Total $33.7 Trillion in Second Quarter 2022." It includes data tables showing that money market funds held in retirement accounts rose to $569 billion (from $545 billion) in total, or 13% of the total $4.541 trillion in money funds. MMFs represent just 5.6% of the total $10.231 trillion of mutual funds in retirement accounts.
This release says, "Total US retirement assets were $33.7 trillion as of June 30, 2022, down 10.2 percent from March 31, 2022. Retirement assets accounted for 31 percent of all household financial assets in the United States at the end of June 2022. Assets in individual retirement accounts (IRAs) totaled $11.7 trillion at the end of the second quarter of 2022, a decrease of 11.4 percent from the end of the first quarter of 2022. Defined contribution (DC) plan assets were $9.3 trillion at the end of the second quarter, down 11.4 percent from March 31, 2022. Government defined benefit (DB) plans—including federal, state, and local government plans—held $7.3 trillion in assets as of the end of June 2022, a 6.9 percent decrease from the end of March 2022. Private-sector DB plans held $3.2 trillion in assets at the end of the second quarter of 2022, and annuity reserves outside of retirement accounts accounted for another $2.2 trillion."
The ICI tables also show money funds accounting for $400 billion, or 8%, of the $5.073 trillion in IRA mutual fund assets and $170 billion, or 3%, of the $5.158 trillion in defined contribution plan holdings. (Money funds in 401k plans totaled $116 billion, or 3% of the $4.050 trillion of mutual funds in 401k's.)
