The latest statistics released by the Investment Company Institute in its "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" table show taxable money fund investments in Certificates of Deposit, U.S. Government Agency Securities and Commercial Paper dropped in February 2010. CDs remain the largest holding in taxable MMFs at 22.7% (includes Eurodollar CDs), or $626.2 billion, followed by Repurchase Agreements at 19.6% ($542.3 billion), Agencies at 17.6% ($485.8 billion), and CP at 17.3% ($478.0 billion).
Overall money fund assets declined by $76.2 billion, or 2.4%, to $3.139 trillion according to ICI's most recent monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing." Repos, Bank Notes and Corporate Notes were the only sectors (besides "Other") to show increases, rising $2.1 billion, $1.6 billion, and $1.3 billion, respectively. Year-to-date, Repo holdings have jumped by $52.7 billion, while Agencies, CDs and CP have fallen sharply (down $68.6 billion, $44.2 billion, and $42.3 billion, respectively).
ICI's monthly asset series says, "Money market funds had an outflow of $77.26 billion in February, compared with an outflow of $103.45 billion in January. Funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $69.41 billion. Funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $7.85 billion." ICI's weekly series shows March's numbers down by $113 billion month-to-date, which would make it the largest monthly decline since Sept. 2008.
Statistics from ICI also show the number of taxable money fund accounts fell below 30 million (to 29.696 million) in February. Accounts outstanding have declined by 4.55 million over the past year. Average maturities fell by one day to 50 days, the number of taxable funds (portfolios) fell by two to 475, and the percentage of liquid assets in stock funds continues to set record lows at 3.5%.
Crane Data's preliminary Portfolio Composition statistics for March, a separate series from the ICI's, show Repos as taxable money funds' largest holding (25%), followed by Govt (20%), Treasury (17%), CDs (14%), CP (12%), ABCP (6%), FRNs (2%), Corp (1%) and Other (3%). (Our Money Fund Intelligence XLS began tracking Portfolio Composition late in 2009, and we're still working out our collections and categorizations.) Be on the lookout for an analysis of the largest holdings of the largest money market funds in the pending April issue of our Money Fund Intelligence, and watch for money fund holdings to be added to our Money Fund Wisdom database later in 2010.
