Money Fund Assets Up Again
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows a modest increase for the second week in a row following two weeks of declines. It explains, "Total money market fund assets increased by $8.34 billion to $3.63 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, February 19, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $4.14 billion and prime funds increased by $3.47 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $734 million." ICI's weekly series shows Institutional MMFs rising $3.8 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $4.5 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $2.688 trillion (74.0% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $809.5 billion (22.3%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $136.1 billion, 3.7%. Money fund assets are now up fractionally year-to-date in 2020 (up $2B, or 0.0%), but they've increased in 13 out of the last 18 weeks. Over the past 52 weeks, ICI's money fund asset series has increased by $561 billion, or 18.3%, with Retail MMFs rising by $194 billion (16.2%) and Inst MMFs rising by $367 billion (19.6%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $4.53 billion to $1.39 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $2.98 billion to $788.24 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $1.44 billion to $479.00 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $118 million to $123.81 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 increased by $3.81 billion to $2.24 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $1.16 billion to $1.90 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.03 billion to $330.53 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $617 million to $12.29 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 61.7% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 84.7% of all Institutional MMF totals.
