The Investment Company Institute's latest statistics show money fund assets and repo holdings continued to rise in August. Money funds will likely show big gains in September too, according to Crane Data's MFI Daily, their third straight monthly gain. ICI's "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing: August 2012" shows that money market mutual fund assets rose by $5.3 billion in August to $2.554 trillion. Money fund assets continue to lose share to bond fund assets, though; bond funds rose by $45.1 billion to $3.286 trillion. ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Market Funds shows Repurchase Agreements jumping again in August and Government Agencies falling again.
ICI's August "Trends" says, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $200.2 billion, or 1.6 percent, to $12.549 trillion in August, 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.... Money market funds had an inflow of $5.63 billion in August, compared with an inflow of $34.69 billion in July. Funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $5.17 billion. Funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $457 million."
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Mutual Funds Assets" says, "Total money market mutual fund assets increased by $8.52 billion to $2.576 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, September 26, the Investment Company Institute reported today [Thursday]. Taxable government funds increased by $5.29 billion, taxable non-government funds increased by $4.74 billion, and tax-exempt funds decreased by $1.51 billion."
In September, month-to-date through 9/27, assets have increased by another $33.9 billion, according to Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence Daily (note that this total includes a $12 billion increase due to funds being added to MFI Daily though). YTD, we show asset declines of $118 billion, or 4.4%. Our daily series shows the rebound continuing in Prime Institutional funds continued in September; they've gained $21.1 billion month-to-date after rising $15.0 billion in July.
ICI's Portfolio Holdings series shows Repurchase Agreements jumped again in August after rising in July , April and May. Repos remain the largest portfolio holding among taxable money funds with 25.3% of assets. Treasury Bills & Securities remained the second largest segment at 20.0%; holdings in T-Bills and other Treasuries rose by $3.0 billion to $457.7 billion. Holdings of Certificates of Deposits, which rank third among portfolio holdings, increased by $7.1 billion to $397.7 billion (17.4%).
Commercial Paper dipped by $5.3 billion to $331.8 billion, but it remained the fourth largest composition sector with 14.5% of assets. Fifth-ranked U.S. Government Agency Securities fell by $13.0 billion to $316.1 billion, or 13.8% of assets. Notes (including Corporate and Bank) accounted for 5.1% of assets ($117.4 billion), while Other holdings accounted for 3.6% ($82.1 billion).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's Holdings series for taxable money funds decreased to 24.43 million from 25.25 million the month before, while the Number of Funds fell by 2 to 413. The Average Maturity of Portfolios lengthened by two days to 47 days in August. (Note that the archived version of our Money Fund Intelligence XLS monthly spreadsheet -- see our Content Page to download -- now has its Portfolio Composition and Maturity Distribution totals updated as of August 31, 2012. We revise these following the monthly publication of our final Money Fund Portfolio Holdings data.)
In other news, Fitch released an analysis of its sample of August portfolio holdings ("U.S. Money Fund Exposure and European Banks: Repos Reflect Caution"), saying, "U.S. prime money market funds slightly increased their exposure to Eurozone banks, which as of end-August represents 9.2% of total MMF holdings or an 8% increase on a dollar basis since end-July 2012.... MMF exposure to eurozone banks remains 74% below the end-May 2011 level on a dollar basis. The preference for secured exposure in the form of repurchase agreements (repos) suggests that MMFs remain somewhat cautious towards banks in the region. The proportion of exposure in the form of repos continues to rise, with repos comprising 37% of MMF allocations to European banks and 39% of allocations to eurozone banks as of end-August. Each of these ratios represents a new high during Fitch's period of study, dating to end-2006."
