ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows MMFs increasing for the second week in a row following six weeks of declines. The release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $14.94 billion to $4.50 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, July 28, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $11.71 billion and prime funds increased by $4.35 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $1.11 billion." Money fund assets are up by $205 billion, or 4.8%, year-to-date in 2021. Inst MMFs are up $307 billion (11.1%), while Retail MMFs are down $103 billion (-6.7%).
ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $19.0 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $4.1 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.926 trillion (87.2% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $484.3 billion (10.8%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $91.6 billion (2.0%). Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets have decreased by $68 billion, or -1.5%, with Retail MMFs falling by $115 billion (-7.5%) and Inst MMFs rising by $47 billion (1.5%). (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 explains, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $4.09 billion to $1.42 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $2.21 billion to $1.12 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.49 billion to $224.06 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $390 million to $80.01 billion." Retail assets account for just under a third of total assets, or 31.6%, and Government Retail assets make up 78.6% of all Retail MMFs.
ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $19.03 billion to $3.08 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $13.91 billion to $2.81 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $5.84 billion to $260.27 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $723 million to $11.60 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 68.4% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 91.2% of all Institutional MMF totals.
ICI also released its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" and "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" for June 2021. The monthly "Trends" report shows that money fund assets decreased $73.4 billion in June to $4.534 trillion. This follows increases of $78.6 billion in May, $31.9 billion in April, $129.4 billion in March and $39.4 billion in February. But MMFs decreased $5.2 billion in January, $10.0 billion in December and $12.0 billion in November. Assets also fell $47.6 billion in October, $118.4 billion in September, $56.7 billion in August and $55.4 billion in July. For the 12 months through June 30, 2021, money fund assets have decreased by $100.4 billion, or -2.2%. (Month-to-date in June through 7/28, MMF assets have decreased by $34.0 billion according to Crane's MFI Daily.)
Their monthly release states, "The combined assets of the nation’s mutual funds increased by $191.83 billion, or 0.7 percent, to $25.99 trillion in June, according to the Investment Company Institute’s official survey of the mutual fund industry. In the survey, mutual fund companies report actual assets, sales, and redemptions to ICI.... Bond funds had an inflow of $38.65 billion in June, compared with an inflow of $22.54 billion in May.... Money market funds had an outflow of $73.37 billion in June, compared with an inflow of $78.92 billion in May. In June funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $66.49 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $6.88 billion."
The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable MMFs lost assets while Tax Exempt MMFs increased last month. Taxable MMFs decreased by $73.9 billion in June to $4.441 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs increased $0.6 billion to $93.5 billion. Taxable MMF assets decreased year-over-year by $64.1 billion (-1.4%), while Tax-Exempt funds fell by $36.2 billion over the past year (-27.9%). Bond fund assets increased by $72.1 billion in June to a record $5.513 trillion; they've risen by $795.4 billion (16.9%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 17.4% of all mutual fund assets (down 0.5% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 21.2%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 316, the same as the prior month but down from 358 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 251 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 65 funds.
ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirms another massive spike in Repo and drop in Treasuries last month. Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds still remain the largest composition segment (since surpassing Repo last April). Treasury holdings plunged $113.3 billion, or -5.1%, to $2.105 trillion, or 47.4% of holdings. Treasury securities have decreased by $243.7 trillion, or 10.4%, over the past 12 months. (See our July MF Portfolio Holdings: Repo Surge Again on RRP; T-Bills Plunge.")
Repurchase Agreements were the second largest composition segment; repos jumped by $238.0 billion, or 17.6%, to $1.588 trillion, or 35.8% of holdings. Repo holdings have increased $679.6 billion, or 74.8%, over the past year. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they decreased $42.1 billion, or -7.8%, to $498.4 billion, or 11.2% of holdings. Agency holdings have fallen by $327.6 billion, or -39.7%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) remained in fourth place; they decreased by $46.9 billion, or -24.0%, to $148.4 billion (3.3% of assets). CDs held by money funds shrank by $69.3 billion, or -31.8%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper took fifth place, down $26.5 billion, or -15.7%, to $142.1 billion (3.2% of assets). CP has decreased by $70.9 billion, or -33.3%, over one year. Other holdings increased to $25.3 billion (0.6% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) were down to $4.1 billion (0.1% of assets).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased to 44.575 million, while the Number of Funds was unchanged at 251. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 5.218 million and the number of funds decreased by 27. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 38 days, down 5 days from May. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have decreased by 5.
