Money fund assets ended 2014 with a bang, rising for the second week in a row and for the 12th week out of the last 14. Money funds also rose for the 5th straight month in a row in December, up over $70 billion. They ended 2014 up fractionally, up by $14 billion, or 0.5%, the same marginal increase as 2013 (and slightly higher than 2012’s $10 billion gain). This year's asset gains are all the more impressive given the continued zero rate environment and the SEC's sweeping Money Fund Reforms passed in July. We review the Investment Company Institute's latest weekly money fund statistics, as well as ICI's latest "Trends" report and monthly Portfolio Composition figures for November, below.
ICI's weekly "Money Market Mutual Fund Assets" report says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $19.42 billion to $2.73 trillion for the eight-day period ended Tuesday, December 30.... Among taxable money market funds, Treasury funds (including agency and repo) increased by $16.14 billion and prime funds increased by $2.95 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $320 million."
It explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $3.39 billion to $911.29 billion.... Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $16.03 billion to $1.82 trillion. Among institutional funds, Treasury money market fund assets increased by $15.46 billion to $813.91 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $1.03 billion to $936.90 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $470 million to $70.78 billion." (ICI's "Long-Term Mutual Fund Flows" for the week of Dec. 17, show big outflows for bond funds in the latest week and for the second week in a row.)
ICI also released its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing, November 2014" earlier this week, which shows that total money fund assets increased by $21.1 billion in November to $2.645 trillion. MMF assets increased by $19.2B in October, $22.7B in September, and $34.0 billion in August, but decreased by $16.1 billion in July. Year-to-date through Nov. 30, ICI's monthly series shows money fund assets were down by $74.6 billion, or 2.8%. (As we mentioned too, ICI's weekly asset series shows money fund assets increasing by over $70 billion in December 2014 too.)
The Trends report says, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $207.37 billion, or 1.3 percent, to $15.96 trillion in November, according to the Investment Company Institute's official survey of the mutual fund industry.... Bond funds had an inflow of $14.91 billion in November, compared with an outflow of $6.24 billion in October. Money market funds had an inflow of $21.10 billion in November, compared with an inflow of $19.18 billion in October. In November funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $28.50 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $7.39 billion." Money funds represent 16.3% of all mutual fund assets while bond funds represent 21.9%.
ICI also released its latest "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds," which show sizable increases in Repos and Agencies, and drops in Treasuries and CDs, in November. (See Crane Data's Dec. 10 News, "Dec. Portfolio Holdings Show Spike in Agencies, CDs, Repo; Drop in TDs.") ICI's latest Portfolio Holdings summary shows that Holdings of CDs (including Eurodollar) decreased by $13.5B, or 2.1%, in November to $624.4B, after increasing $78.9 billion in October. CDs represent 26.1% of assets and remain the largest composition segment. Repo holdings, the second largest segment, increased $17.9 billion, or 3.5%, in November (after decreasing $73.3B in October) to $529.9 billion. Repos represent 22.1% of taxable MMF holdings.
Treasury Bills & Securities, which decreased by $12.2 billion, or 3.2%, remained the third largest segment. Treasury holdings totaled $368.4 billion (15.4% of assets). Commercial Paper stayed as the fourth largest segment, increasing $9.9B, or 2.6%, (after increasing $12.1 billion in October) to $359.3 billion. They represent 15.0% of assets. U.S. Government Agency Securities remained in fifth place, increasing $11.0B, or 3.2%, in November to $353.5 billion (14.8% of assets). Notes (including Corporate and Bank) dropped by $2.3 billion, or 3.0%, to $73.6 billion (3.1% of assets), and Other holdings (including Cash Reserves) increased by $10.2 billion to $84.1 billion (3.5% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's Holdings series for taxable money funds decreased by 20.7 thousand to 23.587 million, while the Number of Funds decreased by 1 to 365. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts fell by 385.1 thousand and the number of funds declined by 19. The Average Maturity of Portfolios decreased by 1 day to 46 days in November. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money funds have declined by 3 days.
Note: Crane Data updated its December MFI XLS to reflect the 12/31/14 composition data and maturity breakouts for our entire fund universe early last week. Note again too that we are now producing a "Holdings Reports Issuer Module," which allows subscribers to choose a series of Portfolio Holdings and Issuers and to see a full listing of which money funds own this paper. (Visit our Content Center and the latest Money Fund Portfolio Holdings download page to access our December holdings and the latest version of this new file.)
