Assets Flat on Week, Down in April
ICI released its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report yesterday, which shows assets were flat over the past 7 days, after jumping the previous week (and falling sharply for 3 weeks before this). Year-to-date, MMFs are down by $193 billion, or -4.1%, with Institutional MMFs down $126 billion, or -3.9% and Retail MMFs down $67 billion, or -4.5%. Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets are flat (down $0 billion, or 0.0%), with Retail MMFs falling by $59 billion (-4.0%) and Inst MMFs rising by $58 billion (1.9%). (Month-to-date in May, through 5/4, MMF assets have decreased by $16.0 billion to $4.957 trillion according to Crane's MFI Daily, which tracks a broader universe of funds. In April, MMFs fell by $74.3 billion to $4.974 trillion, according to our MFI XLS monthly.) ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $2.21 billion to $4.51 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, May 4, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $589 million and prime funds increased by $157 million. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $2.64 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs inching up by $0.8 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $1.5 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.005 trillion (88.8% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $412.7 billion (9.1%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $94.4 billion (2.0%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $1.45 billion to $1.40 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $773 million to $1.12 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $674 million to $192.87 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.55 billion to $85.18 billion." Retail assets account for just under a third of total assets, or 31.1%, and Government Retail assets make up 80.3% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $756 million to $3.11 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $184 million to $2.88 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $516 million to $219.84 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.09 billion to $9.26 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 68.9% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 92.6% of all Institutional MMF totals. (Note that ICI's asset totals don't include a number of funds tracked by the SEC and Crane Data, so they're approximately $400 billion lower than Crane's asset series.)
