The Investment Company Institute released its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report, as well as its monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" and "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" for August 2022 Thursday. Their weekly update shows money fund assets rose again in the latest week after a big jump last week (but declines in 6 of the past 8 weeks before that). (Note: Thanks once more to the speakers, sponsors and attendees at our European Money Fund Symposium in Paris earlier this week! Watch for excerpts and quotes from the event in our October Money Fund Intelligence newsletter in coming days, and let us know if you'd like to see the conference binder.)
ICI shows assets down by $115 billion, or -2.4%, year-to-date, with Institutional MMFs down $174 billion, or -5.4% and Retail MMFs up $59 billion, or 4.0%. Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets are up by $46 billion, or 1.0%, with Retail MMFs rising by $96 billion (6.7%) and Inst MMFs falling by $50 billion (-1.6%). (For the month of Sept. through 9/28, MMF assets increased by $29.2 billion to $5.057 trillion according to Crane's MFI XLS, which tracks a broader universe of funds than ICI. Crane Data's Prime asset total is currently $965.4 billion.)
Their weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $6.37 billion to $4.59 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, September 28, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $6.24 billion and prime funds increased by $942 million. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $812 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs decreasing $2.2 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $8.6 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.961 trillion (86.3% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $528.8 billion (11.5%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $99.9 billion (2.2%).
ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $8.59 billion to $1.53 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $1.92 billion to $1.13 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $6.76 billion to $304.75 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $93 million to $90.05 billion." Retail assets account for a third of total assets, or 33.3%, and Government Retail assets make up 74.2% of all Retail MMFs.
They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $2.22 billion to $3.06 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $4.32 billion to $2.83 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $5.82 billion to $224.01 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $718 million to $9.87 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 66.7% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 92.3% 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.)
ICI's "Trends" report shows that money fund assets decreased $6.4 billion in August to $4.568 trillion. This follows increases of $34.3 billion in July and $25.0 billion in June, and decreases of $8.0 billion in May and $71.0 billion in April. MMFs increased $9.6 billion in March, decreased $38.3 billion in February, and decreased $136.1 billion in January. For the 12 months through August 31, 2022, money fund assets increased by $31.9 billion, or 0.7%.
The monthly release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds decreased by $662.10 billion, or 2.8 percent, to $22.70 trillion in August, 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 $7.56 billion in August, compared with an outflow of $34.19 billion in July.... Money market funds had an outflow of $10.32 billion in August, compared with an inflow of $31.14 billion in July. In August funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $29.16 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $18.84 billion."
The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable funds and Tax Exempt MMFs were mixed last month. Taxable MMFs decreased by $12.0 billion in August to $4.466 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs increased $5.6 billion to $102.2 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $20.3 billion (0.5%), and Tax-Exempt funds rose by $11.5 billion over the past year (12.7%). Bond fund assets plunged by $107.7 billion (-2.2%) in August to $4.772 trillion, and they've decreased by $883.3 billion (-14.9%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 20.1% of all mutual fund assets (up 0.5% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 21.0%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 296, down one from the prior month and down from 307 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 237 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 59 funds.
ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirm yet another decline in Treasuries and increase in CP and Repo last month. Repurchase Agreements remained the largest composition segment in August, increasing $16.7 billion, or 0.7%, to $2.431 trillion, or 54.4% of holdings. Repo holdings have increased $630.2 billion, or 35.0%, over the past year. (See our Sept. 13 News, "Sept. MF Portfolio Holdings: Repo, CD, CP Higher; Treasuries Fall Again.")
Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds fell again last month, though they remained the second largest composition segment. Treasury holdings decreased $76.9 billion, or -5.7%, to $1.276 trillion, or 28.6% of holdings. Treasury securities have decreased by $547.9 billion, or -30.0%, over the past 12 months. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they increased $11.3 billion, or 3.0%, to $392.8 billion, or 8.8% of holdings. Agency holdings have fallen by $82.5 billion, or -17.4%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) remained in fourth place; they jumped by $10.0 billion, or 5.6%, to $188.4 billion (4.2% of assets). CDs held by money funds rose by $9.8 billion, or 5.5%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper remained in fifth place, up $19.0 billion, or 14.9%, to $146.4 billion (3.3% of assets). CP has decreased by $7.3 billion, or -4.8%, over one year. Other holdings increased to $15.8 billion (0.4% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) inched up to $3.3 billion (0.1% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased to 58.498 million, while the Number of Funds fell this past month to 237. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 12.875 million and the number of funds decreased by 10. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was a record low 20 days, down 4 days from July. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have decreased by 17.
