Money Fund Assets Inch Higher
Money fund assets inched up in the latest week, after skyrocketing the prior week and plunging the week before that. The increase represents the 29th gain out of the past 33 weeks. ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows that MMF totals have increased by $532 billion, or 17.4%, year-to-date in 2019. Over the past 52 weeks, ICI's money fund asset series has increased by $670 billion, or 23.0%, with Retail MMFs rising by $233 billion (20.9%) and Inst MMFs rising by $437 billion (24.4%). ICI writes, "Total money market fund assets increased by $2.37 billion to $3.58 trillion for the eight-day period ended Wednesday, December 4, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $1.31 billion and prime funds increased by $817 million. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $242 million." ICI's weekly series shows Institutional MMFs falling $1.5 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $3.9 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $2.664 trillion (74.4% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $776.7 billion (21.7%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $138.8 billion, 3.9%. They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $3.89 billion to $1.35 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $1.87 billion to $762.94 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $1.56 billion to $460.52 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $462 million to $125.94 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 37.7%, and Government Retail assets make up 56.6% of all Retail MMFs. The release adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $1.52 billion to $2.23 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $564 million to $1.90 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $739 million to $316.14 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $219 million to $12.81 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 62.3% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 85.2% of all Institutional MMF totals. Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series shows overall money fund assets up $8.3 billion month-to-date (through 12/4) to $3.919 trillion. (We're projecting that this series will break the $4.0 trillion level by the end of this year!) Prime MMF assets are down $119M MTD, while Government assets are up $8.2B.
