MMF Assets Flat After Breaking Record
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money funds flat in the latest week, after skyrocketing to a record $4.9 trillion the previous week. Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets have risen $318 billion, or 7.0%, with Retail MMFs rising by $342 billion (23.0%) and Inst MMFs falling by $24 billion (-0.8%). ICI shows assets up by $159 billion, or 3.4%, year-to-date in 2023, with Institutional MMFs up $10 billion, or 0.3% and Retail MMFs up $149 billion, or 8.9%. The weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $23 million to $4.89 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, March 8, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $13.89 billion and prime funds increased by $12.71 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $1.15 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs falling by $13.5 billion and Retail MMFs rising $13.5 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.983 trillion (81.4% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $794.2 billion (16.2%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $116.2 billion (2.4%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $13.48 billion to $1.83 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $2.51 billion to $1.20 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $10.32 billion to $525.29 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $651 million to $103.28 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 37.3%, and Government Retail assets make up 65.6% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $13.51 billion to $3.07 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $16.40 billion to $2.79 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.39 billion to $268.92 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $499 million to $12.94 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 62.7% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 90.8% of all Institutional MMF totals. According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets increased by $67.4 billion for the month of February (through 2/28/23), and they rose another $27.0 billion over the first 8 days of March to $5.279 trillion. (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.)
