The Investment Company Institute's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows MMF assets declining for the 3rd week in a row, a period which includes the June 15 quarterly tax payment date and Juneteenth long holiday weekend. MMFs had hit records for 7 straight weeks (and 13 weeks out of the past 15) prior to this pause. Assets have declined by $25.8 billion over the past 3 weeks but they rose by $636 billion, or 13.2%, over the prior 15 weeks (breaking the $5.4 billion barrier 4 weeks ago). ICI shows assets up by $696 billion, or 14.7%, year-to-date in 2023, with Institutional MMFs up $374 billion, or 12.2% and Retail MMFs up $322 billion, or 19.2%. Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets have risen $900 billion, or 19.9%, with Retail MMFs rising by $548 billion (37.7%) and Inst MMFs rising by $352 billion (11.4%). (Note: Thanks to those who attended our Money Fund Symposium last week in Atlanta! Conference materials are available in our "Money Fund Symposium 2023 Download Center," and register soon and make hotel reservations for our next event, European Money Fund Symposium, which is Sept. 25-26, 2014 in Edinburgh, Scotland.)
Their weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $2.89 billion to $5.43 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, June 28, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $2.77 billion and prime funds decreased by $1.16 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $1.04 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs dropping $8.7 billion but Retail MMFs rising $5.8 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.495 trillion (82.8% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $821.8 billion (15.1%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $114.0 billion (2.1%).
ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $5.81 billion to $2.00 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $362 million to $1.34 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $3.94 billion to $558.44 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.52 billion to $103.93 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 36.8%, and Government Retail assets make up 66.9% of all Retail MMFs.
They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $8.71 billion to $3.43 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $3.13 billion to $3.16 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $5.10 billion to $263.37 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $474 million to $10.11 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 63.2% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 92.0% of all Institutional MMF totals. (According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have risen by $4.6 billion in June through 6/28 to $5.830 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.)
ICI also released its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" and "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" for May 2023 on Thursday. The monthly Trends shows money fund totals hitting record levels again in May after April's slight increase and March's historic jump. The March jump ($371.0 billion increase) was the third largest monthly increase ever and the largest in history if you exclude 2 coronavirus lockdown panic months in March and April 2020. ICI's monthly "Trends" report shows that money fund assets increased $172.7 billion in May to a record $5.420 trillion. Bond fund assets also decreased, dropping $37.9 billion to $4.615 trillion.
MMFs have increased by $903.6 billion, or 20.0%, over the past 12 months. Money funds' May asset increase follows gains of $8.4 billion in April, $371.0 billion in March, $60.0 billion in February, $31.5 billion in January, $105.3 billion in December, $63.4 billion in November, $36.8 billion in October and $4.2 billion in Sept. MMFs decreased $6.4 billion in August, but they increased $34.3 billion in July and $25.0 billion in June. MMFs decreased $8.0 billion last May. Money fund assets surpassed bond fund assets in September 2022 for the first time since 2010 and they continued to hold a sizeable lead last month. (The bond fund totals don't include bond ETFs, which total $1.363 trillion as of 5/31, according to ICI.)
ICI's monthly release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds decreased by $20.40 billion, or 0.1 percent, to $23.52 trillion in May, 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 inflow of $415 million in May, compared with an inflow of $1.52 billion in April.... Money market funds had an inflow of $161.00 billion in May, compared with an outflow of $2.59 billion in April. In May funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $101.96 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $59.04 billion."
The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable MMFs and Tax Exempt MMFs were both higher last month. Taxable MMFs increased by $168.0 billion in May to $5.307 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs increased $4.7 billion to $112.4 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $891.1 billion (20.2%), and Tax-Exempt funds rose by $12.6 billion over the past year (12.6%). Bond fund assets decreased by $38.2 billion (after increasing $23.3 billion in April) to $4.615 trillion; they've decreased by $354.9 billion (-7.1%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 23.0% of all mutual fund assets (up 0.7% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 19.6%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 280, unchanged from the prior month and down from 300 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 232 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 48 funds.
ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirm a jump in Repo and a decrease in Treasuries last month. Repurchase Agreements remained the largest composition segment in May, increasing $139.7 billion, or 4.6%, to $3.151 trillion, or 59.4% of holdings. Repo holdings have increased $923.3 billion, or 41.4%, over the past year. (See our June 12 News, "June Portfolio Holdings: Repo, Agencies, TDs Jump; Treasuries Plunge.")
Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds decreased again last month; they remain the second largest composition segment. Treasury holdings decreased $111.9 billion, or -11.6%, to $852.9 billion, or 16.1% of holdings. Treasury securities have decreased by $597.2 billion, or -41.2%, over the past 12 months. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they increased $62.6 billion, or 8.6%, to $786.6 billion, or 14.8% of holdings. Agency holdings have increased by $401.2 billion, or 104.1%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) remained in fourth place; they increased by $13.0 billion, or 5.1%, to $265.5 billion (5.0% of assets). CDs held by money funds rose by $95.2 billion, or 55.9%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper remained in fifth place, up $9.9 billion, or 5.7%, to $185.0 billion (3.5% of assets). CP increased $56.4 billion, or 43.8%, over one year. Other holdings increased to $56.3 billion (0.3% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) increased to $9.9 billion (0.2% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds decreased to 55.282 million, while the Number of Funds was unchanged at 232. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts fell by 2.221 million and the number of funds decreased by 9. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 21 days, up 5 from April. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have decreased by 7.
