Money Fund Asset Surge Pauses
The Investment Company Institute's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money fund assets dipped after hitting their highest levels since 2010 last week. Prime assets continued to rise though. Money fund assets are entering one of the strongest seasonal periods of the year, so we expect flows to rebound strongly next week. But assets fell due to tax payments on the 15th. They're now up $23 billion, or 0.8%, YTD, and they've increased by $154 billion, or 5.7%, over 52 weeks. ICI writes, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $3.72 billion to $2.86 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, August 15, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $6.17 billion and prime funds increased by $2.73 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $281 million." Total Government MMF assets, which include Treasury funds too, stand at $2.217 trillion (77.5% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs stand at $513.8 billion (18.0%). Tax Exempt MMFs total $129.6 billion, or 4.5%. They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $527 million to $1.04 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $2.86 billion to $627.93 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.33 billion to $295.25 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $7 million to $121.59 billion." `Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 36.5%, and Government Retail assets make up 60.1% of all Retail MMFs. ICI's release adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $3.20 billion to $1.82 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $3.31 billion to $1.59 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $402 million to $218.58 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $289 million to $8.01 billion." Institutional assets account for 63.5% of all MMF assets, with Government Inst assets making up 87.5% of all Institutional MMFs.
