MMFs Surge to Record Highs in August
The Investment Company Institute released its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report Thursday, which shows money fund assets jumping $76.2 billion to a record $7.153 trillion. MMFs rose $1.5 billion last week prior and $9.2 billion two weeks ago. Their previous record was $7.078 trillion, which was set five weeks ago (the week ended July 2). MMF assets are up by $965 billion, or 15.6%, over the past 52 weeks (through 8/6/25), with Institutional MMFs up $541 billion, or 14.7% and Retail MMFs up $424 billion, or 16.9%. Year-to-date, MMF assets are up by $302 billion, or 4.4%, with Institutional MMFs up $106 billion, or 2.6% and Retail MMFs up $196 billion, or 7.2%. ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $76.24 billion to $7.15 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, August 6, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $67.53 billion and prime funds increased by $7.93 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $789 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $59.2 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $17.1 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $5.826 trillion (81.5% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.189 trillion (16.6%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $137.6 billion (1.9%). It explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $17.06 billion to $2.93 trillion.. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $11.69 billion to $1.84 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $5.41 billion to $964.56 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $37 million to $123.97 billion." Retail assets account for 41.0% of the total, and Government Retail assets make up 62.9% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $59.18 billion to $4.22 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $55.84 billion to $3.98 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.52 billion to $224.54 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $826 million to $13.64 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 59.0% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 94.4% of all institutional MMF totals. According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have increased by $55.5 billion in August (through 8/6/25) to $7.526 trillion. Assets broke above $7.5 trillion on August 4, hit a new record high of $7.532 trillion on August 5, but have since inched lower. Assets increased by $63.7 billion in July, $6.7 billion in June and jumped by $100.9 billion in May. They fell by $24.4 billion in April, but rose $2.8 trillion in March, $94.2 billion in February and $52.8 billion in January. They jumped $110.9 billion in December, $200.5 trillion in November, $97.5 billion in October, $149.8 billion in September and $109.7 billion last August. Note that ICI's asset totals don't include a number of funds tracked by the SEC and Crane Data, so they're almost $400 billion lower than Crane's asset series.
