MF Assets Break Winning Streak
The Investment Company Institute released its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report, which shows money fund assets falling for the first time after five straight weeks of increases. Money fund assets are up $89 billion, or 2.1%, year-to-date in 2021. Inst MMFs up $113 billion (4.1%), while Retail MMFs are down $24 billion (-1.6%). Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets have increased by $450 billion, or 11.9%, with Retail MMFs rising by $34 billion (2.4%) and Inst MMFs rising by $416 billion (17.7%). ICI's "Assets" release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $6.51 billion to $4.39 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, March 17.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $346 million and prime funds decreased by $6.68 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $179 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $3.5 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $10.0 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.768 trillion (85.9% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $515.9 billion (11.8%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $101.6 billion (2.3%). (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.) It explains, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $10.01 billion to $1.50 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $7.83 billion to $1.16 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.82 billion to $255.55 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $356 million to $89.50 billion." Retail assets account for just over a third of total assets, or 34.2%, and Government Retail assets make up 77.0% of all Retail MMFs. ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $3.49 billion to $2.88 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $8.18 billion to $2.61 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $4.86 billion to $260.39 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $177 million to $12.05 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 65.8% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 90.6% of all Institutional MMF totals.
