Money market mutual fund assets fell below the $3.0 trillion level for the first time since October 31, 2007. The Investment Company Institute, whose weekly survey is the broadest measure of money fund assets, reports that "assets decreased by $30.37 billion to $2.983 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, March 31. Assets fell for the fifth week in a row and have fallen in 11 out of the 13 weeks in 2010.
Year-to-date, money fund assets have declined by $311 billion, or 9.4%. Institutional money fund assets, which now total $1.967 trillion (66.0% of all MMF assets) have fallen by $258 billion, or 11.6%, YTD. Retail money fund assets, which total $1.015 trillion, have fallen by $53 billion, or 4.9%. Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets have dropped by $851 billion, or 21.8%. Institutional assets have declined by $526 billion, or 20.7%, while retail assets have declined by $325 billion, or 23.8%.
Money fund assets have decline by almost $1 trillion from their record high of $3.922 trillion, set on January 14, 2009, but they remain over $1 trillion higher than they were in mid-November 2005. ICI's weekly "Money Market Mutual Fund Assets" says, "Taxable government funds decreased by $1.60 billion [to $897 billion], taxable non-government funds decreased by $25.88 billion [to $1.721 trillion], and tax-exempt funds decreased by $2.89 billion [to $364 billion]."
The report adds, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $8.11 billion to $1.015 trillion. Taxable government money market fund assets in the retail category decreased by $1.61 billion to $157.44 billion, taxable non-government money market fund assets decreased by $4.44 billion to $637.12 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $2.06 billion to $220.50 billion. Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $22.26 billion to $1.967 trillion. Among institutional funds, taxable government money market fund assets increased by $10 million to $739.68 billion, taxable non-government money market fund assets decreased by $21.44 billion to $1.084 trillion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $830 million to $143.59 billion."
