Money Fund Assets Dip in Week
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money fund assets declining in the latest week. It explains, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $3.90 billion to $3.62 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, February 5, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $6.81 billion and prime funds increased by $3.11 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $212 million." ICI's weekly series shows Institutional MMFs falling $11.7 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $7.8 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $2.683 trillion (74.2% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $797.9 billion (22.1%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $136.7 billion, 3.8%. Money fund assets are now down year-to-date in 2020 (down $11B, or -0.3%), but they've increased in 11 out of the last 16 weeks. Over the past 52 weeks, ICI's money fund asset series has increased by $554 billion, or 18.1%, with Retail MMFs rising by $190 billion (16.0%) and Inst MMFs rising by $393 billion (21.2%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $7.75 billion to $1.38 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $5.27 billion to $784.86 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.92 billion to $475.09 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $443 million to $124.54 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 38.3%, and Government Retail assets make up 56.7% of all Retail MMFs. The release adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $11.65 billion to $2.23 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $12.07 billion to $1.90 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $190 million to $322.78 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $231 million to $12.17 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 61.7% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 85.0% of all Institutional MMF totals. Money fund assets ended 2019 with their fastest growth rate and biggest asset increase since 2008. Assets increased by more than 2 1/2 times 2018's 7.2% gain.
