Assets Higher After 14 Down Weeks
ICI's weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows that money fund assets rose for the first time in 15 weeks. Assets have fallen $460 billion since May 20, when they were at a record $4.789 trillion. ICI says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $2.14 billion to $4.33 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, November 18.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $9.64 billion and prime funds decreased by $6.70 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $799 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs rising $3.6 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $1.5 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.648 trillion (84.3% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $571.0 billion (13.2%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $110.5 billion (2.6%). (Note that ICI's asset totals don't include a number of funds tracked by the SEC and Crane Data.) ICI shows money fund assets up a still massive $697 billion, or 19.2%, year-to-date in 2020, with Inst MMFs up $528 billion (23.3%) and Retail MMFs up $169 billion (12.3%). Over the past 52 weeks, ICI's money fund asset series has increased by $803 billion, or 22.9%, with Retail MMFs rising by $197 billion (14.7%) and Inst MMFs rising by $606 billion (27.9%). (Crane Data's separate and broader Money Fund Intelligence Daily data series shows total MF assets are down $36.5 billion in November, as of 11/18, to $4.691 trillion.) They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $1.50 billion to $1.54 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $1.00 billion to $1.15 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $2.04 billion to $292.06 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $464 million to $99.31 billion. Retail assets account for just over a third of total assets, or 35.6%, and Government Retail assets make up 74.6% of all Retail MMFs. ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $3.64 billion to $2.79 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $8.64 billion to $2.50 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $4.66 billion to $278.95 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $335 million to $11.21 billion. Institutional assets, which broke below the $3.0 trillion level for the first time since April 22 at the end of August, accounted for 64.4% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 89.6% of all Institutional MMF totals.
