The Securities and Exchange Commission's latest monthly "Money Market Fund Statistics" summary shows that total money fund assets increased by $3.5 billion in August to $5.105 trillion. The SEC shows that Prime MMFs increased by $43.5 billion in August to $960.1 billion, Govt & Treasury funds decreased $47.1 billion to $4.034 trillion and Tax Exempt funds increased $7.1 billion to $111.2 billion. Taxable yields jumped again in August after surging in July. The SEC's Division of Investment Management summarizes monthly Form N-MFP data and includes asset totals and averages for yields, liquidity levels, WAMs, WALs, holdings, and other money market fund trends. We review their latest numbers below. (Note: We look forward to seeing some of you next week at our European Money Fund Symposium, which will take place Sept. 27-28 in Paris, France!)
August's asset increase follows an increase of $57.4 billion in July, $26.6 billion in June, decreases of $19.7 billion in May and $63.3 billion in April, an increase of $40.1 billion in March, and decreases of $29.3 billion in February and $125.1 billion in January. Assets gained $122.9 billion in December, $53.7 billion in November, $7.9 billion in October and $19.9 billion in September. Over the 12 months through 8/31/22, total MMF assets have increased by $94.6 billion, according to the SEC's series. (Note that the SEC's series includes a number of internal money funds not tracked by ICI, though Crane Data includes most of these assets in its collections.)
The SEC's stats show that of the $5.105 trillion in assets, $960.1 billion was in Prime funds, up $43.5 billion in August. Prime assets were up $56.6 billion in July, $8.5 billion in June, $9.4 billion in May, down $11.7 billion in April, up $29.5 billion in March, down $2.7 billion in February, up $10.7 billion in January, and down $20.5 billion in December, $21 billion in November and $12.1 billion in October. This follows an increase of $2.6 billion in September. Prime funds represented 18.8% of total assets at the end of August. They've increased by $92.9 billion, or 10.7%, over the past 12 months. (Month-to-date in September through 9/16, total MMF assets have decreased by $24.3 billion, according to our MFI Daily.)
Government & Treasury funds totaled $4.034 trillion, or 79.0% of assets. They decreased $47.1 billion in August, increased $8.2 billion in July, $14.4 billion in June, decreased by $36.7 billion in May, decreased $57.1 billion in April, increased $8.7 billion in March, decreased by $25.8 billion in February and $135.2 billion in January, after increasing by $144.4 billion in December, $76.0 billion in November, $21.0 billion in October and $20.4 billion in Sept. Govt & Treasury MMFs are down $8.8 billion over 12 months, or -0.0%. Tax Exempt Funds increased $7.1 billion to $111.2 billion, or 2.2% of all assets. The number of money funds was 304 in August, down 2 from the previous month and down 12 funds from a year earlier.
Yields for Taxable MMFs and Tax Exempt MMFs surged higher again in August. The Weighted Average Gross 7-Day Yield for Prime Institutional Funds on August 31 was 2.34%, up 48 bps from the prior month. The Weighted Average Gross 7-Day Yield for Prime Retail MMFs was 2.52%, up 44 bps from the previous month. Gross yields were 2.23% for Government Funds, up 35 basis points from last month. Gross yields for Treasury Funds were up 38 bps at 2.20%. Gross Yields for Tax Exempt Institutional MMFs were up 21 basis points to 1.46% in August. Gross Yields for Tax Exempt Retail funds were up 49 bps to 1.64%.
The Weighted Average 7-Day Net Yield for Prime Institutional MMFs was 2.29%, up 51 bps from the previous month and up 223 basis points from 8/31/21. The Average Net Yield for Prime Retail Funds was 2.23%, up 51 bps from the previous month, and up 221 bps since 8/31/21. Net yields were 2.00% for Government Funds, up 39 bps from last month. Net yields for Treasury Funds were also up 40 bps from the previous month at 1.99%. Net Yields for Tax Exempt Institutional MMFs were up 28 bps from July to 1.36%. Net Yields for Tax Exempt Retail funds were up 54 bps at 1.38% in August. (Note: These averages are asset-weighted.)
WALs and WAMs were mostly down in August. The average Weighted Average Life, or WAL, was 39.0 days (down 4.5 days) for Prime Institutional funds, and 48.8 days for Prime Retail funds (up 0.2 days). Government fund WALs averaged 63.8 days (down 4.5 days) while Treasury fund WALs averaged 66.6 days (down 4.3 days). Tax Exempt Institutional fund WALs were 8.8 days (down 0.8 days), and Tax Exempt Retail MMF WALs averaged 17.1 days (up 0.2 days).
The Weighted Average Maturity, or WAM, was 16.8 days (down 4.6 days from the previous month) for Prime Institutional funds, 14.1 days (down 3.7 days from the previous month) for Prime Retail funds, 18.3 days (down 4.5 days from previous month) for Government funds, and 26.7 days (down 4.6 days from previous month) for Treasury funds. Tax Exempt Inst WAMs were down 1.1 days to 8.5 days, while Tax Exempt Retail WAMs were down 0.3 days from previous month at 16.1 days.
Total Daily Liquid Assets for Prime Institutional funds were 52.7% in August (up 1.6% from the previous month), and DLA for Prime Retail funds was 42.1% (up 3.5% from previous month) as a percent of total assets. The average DLA was 81.1% for Govt MMFs and 98.6% for Treasury MMFs. Total Weekly Liquid Assets was 66.0% (down 0.1% from the previous month) for Prime Institutional MMFs, and 53.3% (down 0.5% from the previous month) for Prime Retail funds. Average WLA was 89.6% for Govt MMFs and 99.6% for Treasury MMFs.
In the SEC's "Prime Holdings of Bank-Related Securities by Country table for August 2022," the largest entries included: Canada with $89.2 billion, Japan with $79.2 billion, France with $59.2 billion, the U.S. with $54.8B, the Netherlands with $30.4B, the U.K. with $30.0B, Aust/NZ with $28.5B, Germany with $26.0B and Switzerland with $7.3B. The gainers among the "Prime MMF Holdings by Country" included: Japan (up $7.8B), the U.K. (up $5.4B), Germany (up $3.8B), Canada (up $3.6B) and Aust/NZ (up $0.1B). Decreases were shown by: the Netherlands (down $2.1B), France (down $1.8B), the U.S. (down $0.8B) and Switzerland (down $0.7B).
The SEC's "Prime Holdings of Bank-Related Securities by Region" table shows The Americas had $144.0 billion (up $2.8B), while Eurozone subset had $133.0B (up $2.5B). Asia Pacific had $129.0B (up $9.6B), while Europe (non-Eurozone) had $85.5B (up $7.0B from last month).
The "Prime MMF Aggregate Product Exposures" chart shows that of the $956.3B billion in Prime MMF Portfolios as of August 31, $414.9B (43.4%) was in Government & Treasury securities (direct and repo) (up from $402.0B), $221.9B (23.2%) was in CDs and Time Deposits (up from $210.7B), $161.4B (16.9%) was in Financial Company CP (up from $154.1B), $121.7B (12.7%) was held in Non-Financial CP and Other securities (up from $119.9B), and $36.4B (3.8%) was in ABCP (up from $29.7B).
The SEC's "Government and Treasury Funds Bank Repo Counterparties by Country" table shows the U.S. with $106.5 billion, Canada with $90.9 billion, France with $98.6 billion, the U.K. with $43.0 billion, Germany with $11.3 billion, Japan with $83.5 billion and Other with $25.5 billion. All MMF Repo with the Federal Reserve was down $28.7 billion in August to $2.069 trillion.
Finally, a "Percent of Securities with Greater than 179 Days to Maturity" table shows Prime Inst MMFs 5.5%, Prime Retail MMFs with 8.2%, Tax Exempt Inst MMFs with 0.8%, Tax Exempt Retail MMFs with 2.1%, Govt MMFs with 11.8% and Treasury MMFs with 9.9%.
