MMF Assets Up for 5th Straight Week
ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money market mutual fund assets rising for the fifth straight week, breaking back above $6.0 trillion 3 weeks ago. MMF assets are up by $179 billion, or 3.8%, year-to-date in 2024 (through 5/22/24), with Institutional MMFs up $38 billion, or 1.2% and Retail MMFs up $142 billion, or 8.4%. Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen by $677 billion, or 12.6%, with Retail MMFs rising by $473 billion (24.1%) and Inst MMFs rising by $204 billion (6.0%). The weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $17.08 billion to $6.07 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, May 22, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $6.82 billion and prime funds increased by $7.68 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $2.58 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $11.4 billion and Retail MMFs rising $5.7 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.901 trillion (80.8% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.036 trillion (17.1%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $128.9 billion (2.1%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $5.72 billion to $2.43 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $729 million to $1.55 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $4.48 billion to $763.89 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.97 billion to $117.00 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 40.1%, and Government Retail assets make up 63.8% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $11.36 billion to $3.63 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $7.55 billion to $3.35 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $3.20 billion to $271.82 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $613 million to $11.90 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 59.9% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 92.2% of all institutional MMF totals. According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have risen by $80.7 billion in May (through 5/22) to $6.462 trillion. (They hit a record $6.538 trillion on 4/2.) Assets fell $15.8 billion in April and $68.8 billion in March. But they rose $72.1 billion in February, $93.9 billion in January, $32.7 billion in December and $226.4 billion in November. MMF totals 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.
