ICI Says MMF Assets Inch Higher
Money market fund assets inched higher in the latest week, just their 3rd increase in the past 11 weeks. ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $5.20 billion to $4.58 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, August 5, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $4.90 billion and prime funds increased by $470 million. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $174 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $4.0 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $1.2 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.696 trillion (80.8% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $757.8 billion (16.6%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $122.0 billion (2.7%). ICI shows Money fund assets up a still massive $944 billion, or 26.0%, year-to-date in 2020, with Inst MMFs up $774 billion (34.2%) and Retail MMFs up $169 billion (12.3%). Over the past 52 weeks, ICI's money fund asset series has increased by $1.239 trillion, or 37.1%, with Retail MMFs rising by $272 billion (21.5%) and Inst MMFs rising by $967 billion (46.7%). (Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series shows MMF assets down by $54.2 billion in July to $4.957 trillion. They fell back below $5.0 trillion on July 14.) They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $1.15 billion to $1.54 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $2.77 billion to $982.51 billion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.70 billion to $447.04 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $76 million to $109.58 billion." Retail assets account for just over a third of total assets, or 33.6%, and Government Retail assets make up 63.8% of all Retail MMFs. ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $4.04 billion to $3.04 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $2.13 billion to $2.71 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.17 billion to $310.71 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $249 million to $12.44 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 66.4% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 89.4% of all Institutional MMF totals.
