Retail MMFs Hit Record $1.6 Trillion
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money fund assets rising the past week after dropping last week but skyrocketing in the first week of November and Retail money fund assets breaking above the $1.6 trillion level for the first time ever. Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets are up by $49 billion, or 1.1%, with Retail MMFs rising by $169 billion (11.8%) and Inst MMFs falling by $120 billion (-3.8%). ICI shows assets down by $80 billion, or -1.7%, year-to-date, with Institutional MMFs down $214 billion, or -6.6% and Retail MMFs up $133 billion, or 9.1%. The weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $3.44 billion to $4.62 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, November 16, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $8.10 billion and prime funds increased by $12.16 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $615 million. Due to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, November 24, data for the week ending November 22 will be available on Wednesday, November 23." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs falling $8.4 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $11.8 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.919 trillion (84.7% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $592.9 billion (12.8%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $113.1 billion (2.4%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $11.80 billion to $1.60 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $4.44 billion to $1.14 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $7.95 billion to $356.90 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $589 million to $100.44 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 34.6%, and Government Retail assets make up 71.5% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $8.37 billion to $3.02 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $12.54 billion to $2.77 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $4.20 billion to $235.97 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $26 million to $12.64 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 65.4% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 91.8% 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.) For the month of November through 11/16, MMF assets increased by $13.0 billion to $5.067 trillion according to Crane's MFI XLS, which tracks a broader universe of funds than ICI. Crane Data's Prime asset totals, which broke the $1.0 trillion level two weeks ago, increased $23.7 billion MTD (and $26.8 billion in October) to $1.019 trillion. Given that November and December are the two strongest months of the year seasonally, we expect big inflows in the coming weeks.
