The Investment Company Institute released its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" report Tuesday. Their latest official numbers confirm another jump in overall assets in September following a huge increase in August. (Month-to-date in October, through 10/30, assets have increased by $5.8 billion, according to Crane's Money Fund Intelligence Daily. We show Prime assets up $13.2 billion and Govt MMFs down $8.9 billion this month.) We review ICI's Trends and latest Portfolio Composition statistics, as well as our latest Weekly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings collection, below.
ICI's "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing - September 2017" shows a $28.8 billion increase in money market fund assets in September to $2.748 trillion. This follows a $71.8 billion increase in August, a $13.6 billion increase in July, a $20.9 billion decrease in June, and a $12.6 billion increase in May. In the 12 months through September 30, money fund assets were up $76.2 billion, or 2.9%.
The monthly report states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $270.61 billion, or 1.5 percent, to $18.10 trillion in September, 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."
It explains, "Bond funds had an inflow of $25.16 billion in September, compared with an inflow of $20.34 billion in August.... Money market funds had an inflow of $28.22 billion in September, compared with an inflow of $70.67 billion in August. In September funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $26.68 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $1.55 billion."
The latest "Trends" shows that Taxable MMFs gained assets last month, while Tax Exempt MMFs declined. Taxable MMFs increased by $30.1 billion in September, after increasing $73.5 billion in August and $11.9 billion in July, but decreasing $20.3 billion in June. Tax-Exempt MMFs decreased $1.3 billion in September, after decreasing $1.7 billion in August, increasing $1.7 billion July, and decreasing $0.6 billion in June. Over the past year through 9/30/17, Taxable MMF assets increased by $77.5 billion (3.0%) while Tax-Exempt funds fell by $1.3 billion (-1.0%).
Money funds now represent 15.2% (the same percentage as last month) of all mutual fund assets, while bond funds represent 22.1%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds decreased by 5 to 405 in September, down from 417 a year ago. (Taxable money funds fell by two to 312 and Tax-exempt money funds fell by 3 to 93 over the last month.)
ICI also released its latest "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds," which confirmed a jump in Treasuries and drop in Repo and "credit" (CP and CDs) in September. Repo remained the largest portfolio segment, down $21.6 billion, or -2.3%, to $909.5 billion or 34.7% of holdings. Repo has increased by $54.1 billion over the past 12 months, or 6.3%. (See our Oct. 11 News, "Oct. Money Fund Portfolio Holdings: Treasuries Rebound, FICC Grows.")
U.S. Government Agency Securities remained in second place among composition segments; they rose by $2.1 billion, or 0.3%, to $666.2 billion, or 25.4% of holdings. U.S. Government Agency holdings have risen by $22.5 billion, or 3.5%, over the past year. Treasury Bills & Securities remained in third place; they rose by $28.3 billion, or 4.5%, to $650.5 billion, or 24.8% of holdings. Treasuries holdings have risen by $15.3 billion, or 2.4%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) stood in fourth place; they decreased $4.5 billion, or -2.1%, to $203.5 billion (7.8% of assets). CDs held by money funds have risen by $8.8 billion, or 4.5%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper remained in fifth place, decreasing $9.4B, or -6.6%, to $133.2 billion (5.1% of assets). CP has increased by $20.4 billion, or 18.1%, over one year. Notes (including Corporate and Bank) were up by $722 million, or 9.5%, to $8.3 billion (0.3% of assets), and Other holdings increased to $13.3 billion.
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased by 458.7 thousand to 26.638 million, while the Number of Funds declined by two to 312. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 2.191 million and the number of funds increased by 1. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 32 days in September, the same level as August. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money funds have shortened by 6 days.
In related news, Crane Data publishing its latest Weekly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics and summary yesterday. Our weekly holdings track a shifting subset of our monthly Portfolio Holdings collection, and the latest cut (with data as of Oct. 27) includes Holdings information from 70 money funds (down from 90 last week, which included a number of funds that report twice a month instead of weekly), representing $1.360 trillion of the $2.943 (46.2%) in total money fund assets tracked by Crane Data. (For our monthly Holdings recap, see our Oct. 11 News, "Oct. Money Fund Portfolio Holdings: Treasuries Rebound, FICC Grows.")
Our latest Weekly MFPH Composition summary shows Government assets dominating the holdings list with Repurchase Agreements (Repo) totaling $538.2 billion, or 39.6%, Treasury debt totaling $403.6 billion or 29.7%, and Government Agency securities totaling $275.9 billion, or 20.3%. Commercial Paper (CP) totaled $39.5 billion, or 2.9%, and Certificates of Deposit (CDs) totaled $42.1 billion, or 3.1%. A total of $36.0 billion or 2.7%, was listed in the Other category (primarily Time Deposits), and VRDNs accounted for $25.0 billion, or 1.8%.
The Ten Largest Issuers in our Weekly Holdings product include: the US Treasury with $403.6 billion, Federal Home Loan Bank with $212.5 billion, BNP Paribas with $85.8 billion, Credit Agricole with $41.1 billion, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with $35.5 billion, Nomura with $34.3 billion, Federal Farm Credit Bank with $33.4 billion, Societe Generale with $31.9 billion, Wells Fargo with $28.5 billion, and RBC with $27.6 billion.
The Ten Largest Funds tracked in our latest Weekly include: JP Morgan US Govt ($137.9B), Fidelity Inv MM: Govt Port ($99.7B), Goldman Sachs FS Govt ($90.5B), BlackRock Lq FedFund ($82.0B), Dreyfus Govt Cash Mgmt ($74.3B), Wells Fargo Govt MMkt ($70.0B), Blackrock Lq T-Fund ($57.3B), State Street Inst US Govt ($49.3B), Goldman Sachs FS Trs Instruments ($47.4B), and Morgan Stanley Inst Liq Govt ($47.3B).
