ICI: MMF Assets Break $7.0 Trillion
ICI published its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report on Thursday. The weekly series shows money fund assets rising $51.2 billion to a record $7.025 trillion, after rising $60.5 billion the week prior. Money fund assets have risen in 22 of the last 31, and 33 of the last 46 weeks, increasing by $721.8.7 billion (or 11.5%) since the Fed cut on 9/18/24 and increasing by $1.048 trillion (or 17.5%) since 4/24/24. MMF assets are up by $948 billion, or 15.6%, in the past 52 weeks (through 3/5/25), with Institutional MMFs up $491 billion, or 13.3% and Retail MMFs up $458 billion, or 19.2%. Year-to-date, MMF assets are up by $175 billion, or 2.6%, with Institutional MMFs up $70 billion, or 1.7% and Retail MMFs up $105 billion, or 3.8%. ICI's weekly release says, "Continued strong inflows into money market funds (MMFs) sent assets soaring by $51.15 billion to a record-breaking $7.03 trillion, the Investment Company Institute reported for the week ended Wednesday, March 5. Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $45.67 billion and prime funds increased by $8.30 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $2.82 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $20.8 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $30.4 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $5.766 trillion (82.1% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.127 trillion (16.0%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $132.0 billion (1.9%). ICI Chief Economist Shelly Antoniewicz comments on the record-high, saying, "Recent strong inflows may be a response to the spike in volatility in the financial markets we've seen lately. With short-term interest rates still at elevated levels historically, money market funds -- which pass earned interest on to their shareholders -- are relatively more attractive to both institutional and retail investors." ICI's release explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $30.35 billion to $2.84 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $22.62 billion to $1.81 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $9.96 billion to $908.94 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $2.23 billion to $120.97 billion." Retail assets account for well over a third of total assets, or 40.4%, and Government Retail assets make up 63.7% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $20.80 billion to $4.19 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $23.06 billion to $3.96 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.66 billion to $218.54 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $592 million to $11.02 billion." `Institutional assets accounted for 59.6% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 94.5% of all institutional MMF totals. According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have risen by $35.7 billion in March through 3/5/25 to a record high $7.357 trillion. Assets rose by $94.2 billion in February, $52.8 billion in January, $110.9 billion in December, $200.5 trillion in November, $97.5 billion in October, $149.8 billion in September, $109.7 billion in August, $16.6 billion in July, $15.7 billion in June and $91.4 billion in May. They declined by $15.8 billion in April and $68.8 billion in March 2024. Note that ICI's asset totals don't include a number of funds tracked by the SEC and Crane Data, so they're over $330 billion lower than Crane's asset series.
