Money Fund Assets Move Lower Again
Money market fund assets fell for the third week in a row, their 11th decrease over the past 14 weeks. ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $4.06 billion to $4.54 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, August 26, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $3.81 billion and prime funds increased by $477 million. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $729 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs decreasing $238 million and Retail MMFs decreasing $3.8 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.667 trillion (80.8% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $751.6 billion (16.6%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $121.0 billion (2.7%). ICI shows Money fund assets up a still massive $908 billion, or 25.0%, year-to-date in 2020, with Inst MMFs up $745 billion (32.9%) and Retail MMFs up $163 billion (11.9%). Over the past 52 weeks, ICI's money fund asset series has increased by $1.176 trillion, or 35.0%, with Retail MMFs rising by $254 billion (19.9%) and Inst MMFs rising by $922 billion (44.2%). They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $3.82 billion to $1.53 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $217 million to $985.30 billion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $3.08 billion to $439.13 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $527 million to $108.40 billion." Retail assets account for just over a third of total assets, or 33.8%, and Government Retail assets make up 64.3% of all Retail MMFs. ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $238 million to $3.01 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $3.59 billion to $2.68 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $3.56 billion to $312.48 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $202 million to $12.62 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 66.2% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 89.2% of all Institutional MMF totals.
