Money Fund Assets Jump Says ICI
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money fund assets jumping in the latest week, just the 4th increase in the past 21 weeks. Assets have fallen $469 billion since May 20, when they were at a record $4.789 trillion. ICI says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $31.40 billion to $4.32 trillion for the six-day period ending Tuesday, December 22.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $35.33 billion and prime funds decreased by $1.92 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $2.01 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $29.1 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $2.3 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.668 trillion (84.9% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $545.4 billion (12.6%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $106.5 billion (2.5%). (Note that ICI's asset totals don't include a number of funds tracked by the SEC and Crane Data, so they're almost $400 billion lower than our asset series.) ICI shows money fund assets up a still massive $688 billion, or 19.0%, year-to-date in 2020, with Inst MMFs up $534 billion (23.6%) and Retail MMFs up $155 billion (11.3%). Over the past 52 weeks, ICI's money fund asset series has increased by $716 billion, or 20.4%, with Retail MMFs rising by $161 billion (12.0%) and Inst MMFs rising by $555 billion (25.5%). (Crane Data's separate and broader Money Fund Intelligence Daily data series shows total MF assets are down $8.3 billion in December, as of 12/22, to $4.710 trillion.) They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $2.28 billion to $1.52 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $5.41 billion to $1.15 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $2.33 billion to $280.20 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $800 million to $95.43 billion. Retail assets account for just over a third of total assets, or 35.3%, and Government Retail assets make up 75.4% of all Retail MMFs. ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $29.12 billion to $2.80 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $29.92 billion to $2.52 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $415 million to $265.18 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $1.21 billion to $11.03 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 64.7% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 90.1% of all Institutional MMF totals.
