The Investment Company Institute's released its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report and its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" and "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" for August 2023 on Thursday. The former shows MMF assets rebounding in the past week to almost record levels after dipping last week. MMFs have hit records in 8 out of the past 11 weeks. ICI's weekly asset series rose to $5.644 trillion, just $1 billion shy of ICI's revised weekly record of two weeks ago. Assets are up by $909 billion, or 19.2%, year-to-date in 2023, with Institutional MMFs up $453 billion, or 14.8% and Retail MMFs up $456 billion, or 27.2%. (Totals are up $823.5 billion, or 17.1%, since 2/22/23.) Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen a massive $1.054 billion, or 23.0%, with Retail MMFs rising by $606 billion (39.6%) and Inst MMFs rising by $448 billion (14.6%).
Their weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $6.31 billion to $5.64 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, September 27, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $6.13 billion and prime funds decreased by $1.08 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $1.26 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs falling $1.5 billion and Retail MMFs rising $7.8 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.635 trillion (82.1% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $892.9 billion (15.8%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $115.8 billion (2.1%).
ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $7.80 billion to $2.13 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $3.92 billion to $1.40 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.83 billion to $627.28 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.06 billion to $104.89 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 37.8%, and Government Retail assets make up 65.7% of all Retail MMFs.
They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $1.49 billion to $3.51 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $2.22 billion to $3.23 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $3.91 billion to $265.57 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $196 million to $10.93 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 62.2% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 92.1% of all Institutional MMF totals.
According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets broke the $6.0 trillion level on Sept. 1 and hit a record $6.065 trillion on Tuesday, Sept. 26, before easing back to $6.032 trillion Wednesday (9/27). Assets have risen by $52.5 billion in September through 9/27 after rising by $98.3 billion in August and $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.
ICI's monthly Trends shows money fund totals rising $123.9 billion in August to a record $5.605 trillion (after increases in July, June, 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 decreased, dropping $24.9 billion to $4.638 trillion.
MMFs have increased by $1.037 trillion, or 22.7%, over the past 12 months. Money funds' August asset increase follows gains of $31.4 billion in July, $30.6 billion in June, $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. 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 $1.391 trillion as of 8/31, according to ICI.)
ICI's monthly release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds decreased by $290.30 billion, or 1.2 percent, to $24.49 trillion in August, 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 outflow of $1.12 billion in August, compared with an inflow of $11.10 billion in July.... Money market funds had an inflow of $111.01 billion in August, compared with an inflow of $17.82 billion in July. In August funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $64.22 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $46.79 billion."
The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable MMFs and Tax Exempt MMFs were both higher last month. Taxable MMFs increased by $120.3 billion in August to $5.490 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs increased $3.7 billion to $115.8 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $1.024 trillion (22.9%), and Tax-Exempt funds rose by $13.6 billion over the past year (13.3%). Bond fund assets decreased by $24.9 billion (after increasing $26.0 billion in July) to $4.638 trillion; they've decreased by $134.7 billion (-2.8%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 22.9% of all mutual fund assets (up 0.8% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 18.9%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 278, down 1 from the prior month and down from 296 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 230 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 August but decreased $110.8 billion, or -3.8%, to $2.839 trillion, or 51.7% of holdings. Repo holdings have increased $490.1 billion, or 20.9%, over the past year. (See our Sept. 12 News, "Sept. Portfolio Holdings: Treasuries Skyrocket, Surpass Fed Repo in Size.")
Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds increased last month; they remain the second largest composition segment. Treasury holdings increased $168.0 billion, or 12.6%, to $1.505 trillion, or 27.4% of holdings. Treasury securities have increased by $165.0 billion, or 12.3%, over the past 12 months. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they increased $24.6 billion, or 4.0%, to $637.5 billion, or 11.6% of holdings. Agency holdings have increased by $226.1 billion, or 55.0%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) remained in fourth place; they increased by $37.7 billion, or 14.7%, to $293.6 billion (5.3% of assets). CDs held by money funds rose by $105.5 billion, or 56.1%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper remained in fifth place, up $15.7 billion, or 7.9%, to $215.1 billion (3.9% of assets). CP increased $68.5 billion, or 46.7%, over one year. Other holdings decreased to $18.0 billion (0.3% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) increased to $10.8 billion (0.2% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased to 60.731 million, while the Number of Funds was down 1 at 230. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 2.237 million and the number of funds decreased by 7. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 24 days, up 1 from July. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have increased by 4.
