MMF Assets Keep Climbing in '24
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows MMF assets `continued their rise to start off the New Year, increasing $10.0 billion to a record high $5.975 trillion. They rose $78.6 billion last week and $16.3 billion the week before that. The latest weekly increase pushed assets above the previous record level of $5.965 trillion set on 1/3/24. Assets are up by $89 billion, or 1.9%, year-to-date in 2024, with Institutional MMFs up $47 billion, or 1.5% and Retail MMFs up $42 billion, or 2.5%. Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen a massive $1.170 trillion, or 24.3%, with Retail MMFs rising by $599 billion (34.5%) and Inst MMFs rising by $571 billion (18.6%). The weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $9.99 billion to $5.98 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, January 10, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $56 million and prime funds increased by $11.40 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $1.35 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs rising $5.8 billion and Retail MMFs rising $4.2 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.878 trillion (81.6% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $973.1 billion (16.3%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $124.3 billion (2.1%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $4.20 billion to $2.33 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $2.35 billion to $1.52 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $7.12 billion to $702.92 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $565 million to $112.71 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 39.0%, and Government Retail assets make up 65.0% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $5.79 billion to $3.64 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $2.29 billion to $3.36 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $4.28 billion to $270.19 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $785 million to $11.63 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 61.0% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 92.3% of all Institutional MMF totals. According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets rose $49.5 billion in the first 10 days of January to $6.350 trillion, slightly off their record $6.367 trillion level set on 1/9/24. Assets rose $32.7 billion in December, jumped $226.4 billion in November but fell by $31.9 billion in October. They rose $93.9 billion in September, $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.
