Money fund assets rose this week, after falling the prior week due to month-end. MMFs have risen in 18 out of the past 20 weeks and are at again at their highest levels since October 2009. ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows that assets have increased by $333 billion, or 10.9%, year-to-date. Over the past 52 weeks, ICI's money fund asset series has increased by $500 billion, or 17.3%, with Retail MMFs rising by $231 billion (21.8%) and Inst MMFs rising by $269 billion (14.7%). We review ICI's latest asset totals, as well as Crane Data's latest onshore and offshore asset information below.
ICI writes, "Total money market fund assets increased by $16.75 billion to $3.38 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, September 4, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $9.22 billion and prime funds increased by $7.12 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $408 million." ICI's weekly series shows Institutional MMFs rising $6.3 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $10.5 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $2.523 trillion (74.6% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $722.2 billion (21.4%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $134.9 billion, or 4.0%.
They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $10.48 billion to $1.29 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $6.48 billion to $736.99 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $3.39 billion to $427.28 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $618 million to $124.72 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 38.1%, and Government Retail assets make up 57.2% of all Retail MMFs.
The release adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $6.27 billion to $2.09 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $2.74 billion to $1.79 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $3.74 billion to $294.93 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $209 million to $10.22 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 61.9% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 85.4% of all Institutional MMF totals.
For the month of August, Crane Data's MFI Daily shows money fund assets rising by $272.3 billion to $3.503 trillion. (Note, however, that we added $195 billion in new funds to our collections. See our Aug. 23 Link of the Day, "Crane Adds $195 Billion to MFI Daily," for details.) The adjusted money fund assets, without the 24 newly added funds, shows a jump of $77.6 billion. With the new funds included, MFI Daily shows $116.2 billion of the gains coming from Govt MMFs and $156.8 billion coming from Prime MMFs. But removing the new funds from our totals shows $61.9 billion in gains coming from Govt MMFs and $16.4 billion coming from Prime MMFs.
Crane Data's latest MFI International, which tracks assets of "offshore" or European money market mutual funds, also shows assets rising in the month of August. These U.S.-style funds, domiciled in Ireland or Luxemburg and denominated in US Dollars, Sterling and Euro, rose by $5.8 billion to $847.2 billion <b:>`_. (The Euro and Sterling funds are converted into U.S. Dollars.) Year-to-date, assets are up by just $1.2 billion. (The gains would be much larger were it not for the strong dollar.)
Offshore USD money funds rose $2.1 billion in August and they've risen by $5.7 billion YTD. Euro funds rose E10.4 billion and YTD are now positive, up E6.2 billion. GBP money funds rose by L11.6 billion through August 30; they're up by L13.9 billion YTD. U.S. Dollar (USD) money funds (175) account for over half ($459.6 billion, or 54.2%) of our "European" money fund total, while Euro (EUR) money funds (78) total E105.2 billion (12.4%) and Pound Sterling (GBP) funds (103) total L223.3 billion (26.4%). (We hope to see some of you in just over 2 weeks at our upcoming European Money Fund Symposium, which is Sept. 23-24 in Dublin, Ireland.)
Reuters also writes about money fund assets in the article, "U.S. money fund assets hit highest since October 2009: iMoneyNet." They say, "U.S. money market fund assets rose to their highest level since October 2009, as investors resumed their move into these low-risk products due to jitters about a slowing global economy and U.S.-China trade tensions, a private report showed on Wednesday."
The brief adds, "Assets of money funds, which are seen nearly as safe as bank accounts, have climbed by $14.87 billion to $3.331 trillion.... This brought their year-to-date increase in fund assets to about $360 billion.... Money funds are offering investors higher yields than most Treasury maturities. That, however, would change if the Federal Reserve reduces borrowing costs further."
