MMF Assets Fall on Tax Date
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows assets falling in the latest week, which includes the June 15 quarterly tax date, after being up strongly the previous week <b:>`_. Year-to-date, MMFs are down by $164 billion, or -3.5%, with Institutional MMFs down $129 billion, or -4.0% and Retail MMFs down $35 billion, or -2.4%. Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets are down by $37 billion, or -0.8%, with Retail MMFs falling by $1 billion (-0.0%) and Inst MMFs falling by $37 billion (-1.2%). (For the month of June, through 6/15, MMF assets have increased by $24.5 billion to $4.984 trillion according to Crane's MFI Daily, which tracks a broader universe of funds.) ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $11.65 billion to $4.54 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, June 15, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $4.86 billion and prime funds decreased by $6.84 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $51 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs falling $20.9 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $9.3 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.018 trillion (88.5% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $420.5 billion (9.3%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $102.7 billion (2.3%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $9.27 billion to $1.43 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $6.10 billion to $1.13 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $3.15 billion to $209.09 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $14 million to $92.60 billion." Retail assets account for just under a third of total assets, or 31.6%, and Government Retail assets make up 79.0% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $20.91 billion to $3.11 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $10.96 billion to $2.89 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $9.99 billion to $211.37 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $37 million to $10.05 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 68.4% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 92.9% 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 over $400 billion lower than Crane's asset series.)
