The Investment Company Institute's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows MMF assets jumping back to record levels after declining for 3 weeks in a row. ICI's asset series is now poised to break $5.5 trillion and is up $666.4 billion, or 13.8%, over the past 22 weeks. ICI shows assets up by $752 billion, or 15.9%, year-to-date in 2023, with Institutional MMFs up $396 billion, or 13.0% and Retail MMFs up $356 billion, or 21.2%. Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets have risen $897 billion, or 19.5%, with Retail MMFs rising by $557 billion (37.7%) and Inst MMFs rising by $340 billion (10.9%). (Note: Click here to see the replay of our recent Money Fund Wisdom Demo & Training, and register soon and make hotel reservations ASAP for our European Money Fund Symposium, which is Sept. 25-26, 2024 in Edinburgh, Scotland.)
Their weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $28.35 billion to $5.49 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, July 26, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $26.87 billion and prime funds increased by $3.46 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $1.98 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs jumping $24.3 billion and Retail MMFs rising $4.0 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.522 trillion (82.4% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $821.8 billion (15.6%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $111.2 billion (2.0%).
ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $4.01 billion to $2.03 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $1.17 billion to $1.35 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $4.69 billion to $578.79 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $1.85 billion to $100.62 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 37.1%, and Government Retail assets make up 66.6% of all Retail MMFs.
They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $24.34 billion to $3.45 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $25.70 billion to $3.17 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.23 billion to $274.71 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $135 million to $10.57 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 62.9% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 91.7% of all Institutional MMF totals. (According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have risen by $51.0 billion in July through 7/26 to $5.897 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 June 2023 on Thursday. The monthly Trends shows money fund totals rising $30.6 billion in June to a record $5.450 trillion (after increases in May and April). Prior to this, the March jump (a $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. Bond fund assets also increased, rising $20.5 billion to $4.635 trillion.
MMFs have increased by $909.2 billion, or 20.0%, over the past 12 months. Money funds' June asset increase follows gains of $172.7 billion in May, $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. 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 $1.377 trillion as of 6/30, 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%, 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 $12.82 billion in June, compared with an inflow of $415 million in May.... Money market funds had an inflow of $16.20 billion in June, compared with an inflow of $160.98 billion in May. In June funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $11.00 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $27.20 billion."
The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable MMFs and Tax Exempt MMFs were both higher last month. Taxable MMFs increased by $27.4 billion in June to $5.335 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs increased $3.1 billion to $115.5 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $896.9 billion (20.2%), and Tax-Exempt funds rose by $12.2 billion over the past year (11.8%). Bond fund assets increased by $20.5 billion (after decreasing $38.2 billion in May) to $4.635 trillion; they've decreased by $159.6 billion (-3.3%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 22.4% of all mutual fund assets (down 0.6% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 19.1%, 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 drop in Repo and a jump in Treasuries last month. Repurchase Agreements remained the largest composition segment in June but decreased $146.7 billion, or -4.6%, to $3.009 trillion, or 56.4% of holdings. Repo holdings have increased $627.6 billion, or 26.4%, over the past year. (See our July 13 News, "July Portfolio Holdings: Treasuries Skyrocket; Repo, Agencies, TDs Fall.")
Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds increased last month; they remain the second largest composition segment. Treasury holdings increased $331.5 billion, or 38.9%, to $1.184 trillion, or 22.2% of holdings. Treasury securities have decreased by $200.7 billion, or -14.5%, over the past 12 months. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they decreased $113.1 billion, or -14.4%, to $672.6 billion, or 12.6% of holdings. Agency holdings have increased by $306.6 billion, or 83.8%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) remained in fourth place; they decreased by $27.5 billion, or -10.5%, to $235.3 billion (4.4% of assets). CDs held by money funds rose by $81.1 billion, or 52.6%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper remained in fifth place, down $595 million, or -0.3%, to $181.9 billion (3.4% of assets). CP increased $63.3 billion, or 53.4%, over one year. Other holdings decreased to $41.0 billion (0.8% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) increased to $11.2 billion (0.2% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased to 59.289 million, while the Number of Funds was unchanged at 232. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 1.381 million and the number of funds decreased by 9. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 24 days, up 3 from May. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have decreased by 2.
