ICI: MF Assets Break $5.5 Trillion
The Investment Company Institute's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows MMF assets hitting record levels again following a brief pause in mid-June and July. ICI's asset series broke the $5.5 trillion level for the first time ever, and shows MMFs up almost $1.0 trillion, and over 20%, over the past year (and up $695.4 billion, or 14.4%, since 2/22/23. Assets are up by $781 billion, or 16.5%, year-to-date in 2023, with Institutional MMFs up $408 billion, or 13.3% and Retail MMFs up $373 billion, or 22.2%. Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets have risen $940 billion, or 20.5%, with Retail MMFs rising by $576 billion (39.1%) and Inst MMFs rising by $364 billion (11.7%). Their weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $28.95 billion to $5.52 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, August 2, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $22.65 billion and prime funds increased by $3.52 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $2.78 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs rising $11.5 billion and Retail MMFs jumping $17.4 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.545 trillion (82.4% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $857.0 billion (15.5%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $114.0 billion (2.1%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $17.43 billion to $2.05 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $10.54 billion to $1.36 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $4.46 billion to $583.24 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $2.43 billion to $103.05 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 37.2%, and Government Retail assets make up 66.5% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $11.52 billion to $3.46 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $12.11 billion to $3.18 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $941 million to $273.77 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $349 million to $10.92 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 62.8% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 91.8% of all Institutional MMF totals. (According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets broke the $5.9 trillion level on August 1, hitting a record $5.923 trillion, before easing back to $5.917 trillion yesterday. Assets have risen by $35.8 billion in August through 8/2 after rising by $34.7 billion in July. 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.)
