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 September 2022 Thursday. The weekly update shows money fund assets flat in the latest week and mostly flat in September. ICI shows assets down by $121 billion, or -2.6%, year-to-date, with Institutional MMFs down $228 billion, or -7.0% and Retail MMFs up $107 billion, or 7.3%. Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets are up by $25 billion, or 0.6%, with Retail MMFs rising by $142 billion (9.9%) and Inst MMFs falling by $116 billion (-3.7%). (For the month of October through 10/26, MMF assets decreased by $4.8 billion to $5.031 trillion according to Crane's MFI XLS, which tracks a broader universe of funds than ICI. Crane Data's Prime asset totals increased $23.0 billion in October to $992.3 billion.)
The weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $371 million to $4.58 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, October 26, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $8.46 billion and prime funds increased by $5.75 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $2.34 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs decreasing $5.9 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $5.5 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.909 trillion (85.3% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $565.5 billion (12.3%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $109.8 billion (2.4%).
ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $5.51 billion to $1.58 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $1.74 billion to $1.14 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $5.33 billion to $336.79 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.92 billion to $98.16 billion." Retail assets account for a over a third of total assets, or 34.4%, and Government Retail assets make up 72.4% of all Retail MMFs.
They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $5.88 billion to $3.01 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $6.72 billion to $2.77 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $417 million to $228.71 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $419 million to $11.61 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 65.6% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 92.0% 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 increased $4.2 billion in September to $4.572 trillion. This follows a decrease of $6.4 billion in August, 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 Sept. 30, 2022, money fund assets increased by $29.8 billion, or 0.1%.
The monthly release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds decreased by $1.45 trillion, or 6.4%, to $21.20 trillion in September, 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 $56.54 billion in September, compared with an outflow of $7.54 billion in August.... Money market funds had an outflow of $299 million in September, compared with an outflow of $10.32 billion in August. In September funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $32.56 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $32.26 billion."
The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable funds and Tax Exempt MMFs were mixed last month. Taxable MMFs increased by $6.8 billion in September to $4.473 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs decreased $2.6 billion to $99.6 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $19.0 billion (0.4%), and Tax-Exempt funds rose by $10.8 billion over the past year (12.2%). Bond fund assets plunged by $238.5 billion (-5.0%) in September to $4.533 trillion, and they've decreased by $1.067 trillion (-19.1%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 21.6% of all mutual fund assets (up 1.5% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 21.4%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 292, down four from the prior month and down from 307 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 237 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 55 funds.
ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirm yet another jump in Repo and plunge in Treasuries last month. Repurchase Agreements remained the largest composition segment in September, increasing $146.5 billion, or 6.2%, to $2.496 trillion, or 55.8% of holdings. Repo holdings have increased $440.1 billion, or 21.4%, over the past year. (See our Oct. 13 News, "Oct. MF Portfolio Holdings: Repo, Agencies Higher; T-Bills Fall Again.")
Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds fell again, but they remained the second largest composition segment. Treasury holdings plunged $135.6 billion, or -10.1%, to $1.204 trillion, or 26.9% of holdings. Treasury securities have decreased by $387.0 billion, or -24.3%, over the past 12 months. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they increased $15.6 billion, or 3.8%, to $427.0 billion, or 9.5% of holdings. Agency holdings have fallen by $20.5 billion, or -4.6%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) remained in fourth place, though they declined by $11.2 billion, or -6.0%, to $176.9 billion (4.0% of assets). CDs held by money funds rose by $24.6 billion, or 16.2%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper remained in fifth place, up $147 million, or 0.1%, to $146.8 billion (3.3% of assets). CP decreased $2.8 billion, or -1.9%, over one year. Other holdings increased to $17.3 billion (0.4% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) inched up to $4.0 billion (0.1% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased to 58.994 million, while the Number of Funds remained the same this month at 237. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 12.778 million and the number of funds decreased by 10. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was a record low 18 days, down s days from August. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have decreased by 16.
