The Investment Company Institute released its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report, as well as its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" and "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds" for September 2021 yesterday. The weekly report shows assets jumping after falling slightly for three weeks in a row. ICI's first release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $41.21 billion to $4.56 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, October 27, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $39.11 billion and prime funds increased by $2.93 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $828 million."

Money fund assets are up by $262 billion, or 6.1%, year-to-date in 2021. Inst MMFs are up $353 billion (12.7%), while Retail MMFs are down $91 billion (-6.0%). ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $42.6 billion and Retail MMFs decreasing $1.4 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.013 trillion (88.0% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $458.6 billion (10.1%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $87.6 billion (1.9%). Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets have increased by $211 billion, or 4.8%, with Retail MMFs falling by $97 billion (-6.3%) and Inst MMFs rising by $308 billion (10.9%). (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 Crane's asset series.)

ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $1.39 billion to $1.43 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $555 million to $1.15 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $1.34 billion to $210.36 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $606 million to $77.33 billion." Retail assets account for just under a third of total assets, or 31.5%, and Government Retail assets make up 79.9% of all Retail MMFs.

They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $42.60 billion to $3.12 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $38.55 billion to $2.87 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $4.27 billion to $248.24 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $222 million to $10.29 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 68.5% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 91.7% of all Institutional MMF totals.

ICI's monthly "Trends" report shows that money fund assets increased $6.4 billion in September to $4.543 trillion. This follows an increase of $25.5 in August, a decrease of $24.4 billion in July and $73.4 billion in June, and increases of $78.6 billion in May, $31.9 billion in April, $129.4 billion in March and $39.4 billion in February. MMFs decreased $5.2 billion in January, $10.0 billion in December and $12.0 billion in November, and assets also fell $47.6 billion in October. For the 12 months through Sept. 30, 2021, money fund assets have increased by $138.5 billion, or 3.1%. (Month-to-date in October through 10/27, MMF assets have increased by $33.3 billion according to Crane's MFI Daily.)

Their monthly release states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds decreased by $700.34 billion, or 2.6 percent, to $25.92 trillion in September, 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 $28.52 billion in September, compared with an inflow of $34.26 billion in August.... Money market funds had an inflow of $6.31 billion in September, compared with an inflow of $26.52 billion in August. In September funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $397 million and funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $6.70 billion."

The Institute's latest statistics show that Taxable funds saw gains while Tax Exempt MMFs saw decreases last month. Taxable MMFs increased by $8.2 billion in September to $4.454 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs decreased $1.9 billion to $88.8 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $163.1 billion (3.8%), while Tax-Exempt funds fell by $24.3 billion over the past year (-21.4%). Bond fund assets decreased by $4.9 billion in September to a $5.600 trillion; they've risen by $632.2 billion (12.7%) over the past year.

Money funds represent 17.5% of all mutual fund assets (up 0.4% from the previous month), while bond funds account for 21.6%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 307, the same number as the prior month and down from 350 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 247 funds, and tax-exempt money funds numbered 60 funds.

ICI's "Month-End Portfolio Holdings" confirms yet another plunge in Treasuries and surge in Repo last month. Repurchase Agreements again became the largest composition segment in September; repos jumped by $254.7 billion, or 14.1%, to $2.056 trillion, or 46.2% of holdings. Repo holdings have increased $1.057 trillion, or 105.8%, over the past year. (See our Oct. 13 News, "Oct. MF Portfolio Holdings: Repos Surpass Treasuries as Largest Slice.")

Treasury holdings in Taxable money funds fell to become the second largest composition segment. Treasury holdings plunged $233.1 billion, or -12.8%, to $1.591 trillion, or 35.7% of holdings. Treasury securities have decreased by $684.1 trillion, or -30.1%, over the past 12 months. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they decreased $27.8 billion, or -5.9%, to $447.5 billion, or 10.0% of holdings. Agency holdings have fallen by $252.5 billion, or -36.1%, over the past 12 months.

Certificates of Deposit (CDs) remained in fourth place; they decreased by $26.2 billion, or -14.7%, to $152.3 billion (3.4% of assets). CDs held by money funds shrank by $28.1 billion, or -15.6%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper took fifth place, down $4.0 billion, or -2.6%, to $149.6 billion (3.4% of assets). CP has decreased by $23.1 billion, or -13.4%, over one year. Other holdings decreased to $25.1 billion (0.6% of assets), while Notes (including Corporate and Bank) were down to $3.4 billion (0.1% of assets).

The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased to 46.217 million, while the Number of Funds was flat at 247. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 6.394 million and the number of funds decreased by 25. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 34 days, down three days from August. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money have decreased by 11.

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