ICI published its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report, as well as its monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" for February 2025 Thursday. The weekly series shows money fund assets rising $11.8 billion to $7.014 trillion, after falling $21.8 billion the week prior and falling $1.4 billion two weeks ago. Money fund assets have risen in 23 of the last 34, and 34 of the last 49 weeks, increasing by $710.5 billion (or 11.3%) since the Fed cut on 9/18/24 and increasing by $1.037 trillion (or 17.3%) since 4/24/24. MMF assets are up by $973 billion, or 16.1%, in the past 52 weeks (through 3/26/25), with Institutional MMFs up $510 billion, or 14.0% and Retail MMFs up $463 billion, or 19.3%. Year-to-date, MMF assets are up by $164 billion, or 2.4%, with Institutional MMFs up $32 billion, or 0.8% and Retail MMFs up $132 billion, or 4.8%. (Note: Thank you to those who attended and supported our Bond Fund Symposium, which took place Thursday and Friday in Newport Beach! Attendees and Crane Data subscribers may access the conference binder, Powerpoints and recordings (we'll post these Monday) via our "Bond Fund Symposium 2025 Download Center.")
ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $11.80 billion to $7.01 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, March 26... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $6.88 billion and prime funds increased by $3.57 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $1.34 billion.” ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $11.9 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $0.1 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $5.741 trillion (81.9% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.137 trillion (16.2%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $135.4 billion (1.9%).
It explains, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $98 million to $2.87 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $3.35 billion to $1.82 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $1.91 billion to $923.61 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.35 billion to $124.13 billion." Retail assets account for well over a third of total assets, or 40.9%, and Government Retail assets make up 63.5% of all Retail MMFs.
They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $11.89 billion to $4.15 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $10.24 billion to $3.92 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $1.66 billion to $213.56 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $7 million to $11.30 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 59.1% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 94.6% of all institutional MMF totals.
According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have risen by $44.1 billion in March through 3/26/25, hitting a record high $7.371 trillion two weeks ago (3/11). 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.
ICI's monthly Trends shows money fund totals rising $99.0 billion, or 1.4%, in February to a record $6.983 trillion. MMFs have increased by $926.5 billion, or 15.3%, over the past 12 months (through 2/28/25). Money funds' February asset increase follows an increase $31.9 billion in January, $139.3 billion in December, $171.5 billion in November, $117.4 billion in October, $158.6 billion in September, $124.8 billion in August, $46.6 billion in July, $13.0 billion in June, $90.9 billion in May and $4.3 billion in April, but decreased $73.0 billion last March. Bond fund assets increased $93.9 billion to $5.201 trillion, and bond ETF assets increased to $1.87 trillion.
The monthly release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds decreased by $85.08 billion, or 0.3 percent, to $29.02 trillion in February, 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 inflow of $14.24 billion in February, compared with an inflow of $8.35 billion in January.... Money market funds had an inflow of $85.04 billion in February, compared with an inflow of $18.80 billion in January. In February funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $39.82 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $45.22 billion."
The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable MMFs were higher from last month while Tax Exempt MMFs were unchanged. Taxable MMFs increased by $99.0 billion in February to $6.850 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs were unchanged at $133.5 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $912.1 billion (15.4%), and Tax-Exempt funds rose by $14.4 billion over the past year (12.1%). Bond fund assets increased by $93.3 billion (after increasing by $39.3 billion in January) to $5.201 trillion; they've increased by $419.2 billion (8.8%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 24.1% of all mutual fund assets (up 0.4% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 17.9%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 258, unchanged from the prior month and down from 272 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 217 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 41 funds.
