Assets Rebound Towards Record
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money fund assets increasing after fallling the previous week (prior to that they'd hit records for two weeks in a row). Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets are up by $265 billion, or 5.8%, with Retail MMFs rising by $306 billion (20.8%) and Inst MMFs falling by $41 billion (-1.3%). ICI shows assets up by $80 billion, or 1.7%, year-to-date in 2023, with Institutional MMFs down $23 billion, or -0.8% and Retail MMFs up $103 billion, or 6.2%. The weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $9.99 billion to $4.82 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, February 15, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $4.39 billion and prime funds increased by $14.45 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $78 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs falling $2.3 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $12.3 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.948 trillion (82.0% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $763.0 billion (15.8%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $103.8 billion (2.2%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $12.31 billion to $1.78 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $1.79 billion to $1.19 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $11.09 billion to $497.92 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $575 million to $93.72 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 37.0%, and Government Retail assets make up 66.8% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $2.33 billion to $3.03 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $6.18 billion to $2.76 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $3.36 billion to $265.11 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $496 million to $10.10 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 63.0% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 90.9% of all Institutional MMF totals. Month-to-date in February (through 2/15/23), money fund assets have increased by $16.6 billion to $5.202 trillion, according to Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence Daily. (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.)
