MMF Assets Up 5th Time in 6 Weeks
ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows MMFs increasing over the past week, their 5th gain in the last 6 weeks. Money fund assets are up $36 billion, or 1.0%, year-to-date, with Inst MMFs up $41 billion (1.8%) and Retail MMFs down $5 billion (-0.3%). Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets have increased by $700 billion, or 19.3%, with Retail MMFs rising by $130 billion (9.4%) and Inst MMFs rising by $569 billion (25.4%). ICI says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $16.04 billion to $4.34 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, February 17.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $18.92 billion and prime funds decreased by $2.02 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $857 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $18.0 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $1.9 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.694 trillion (85.2% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $535.9 billion (12.4%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $103.6 billion (2.4%). (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.) They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $1.92 billion to $1.52 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $180 million to $1.17 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.82 billion to $264.24 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $275 million to $91.58 billion." Retail assets account for just over a third of total assets, or 35.1%, and Government Retail assets make up 76.6% of all Retail MMFs. ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $17.96 billion to $2.81 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $18.74 billion to $2.53 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $205 million to $271.65 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $582 million to $12.06 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 64.9% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 89.9% of all Institutional MMF totals.
