Money Fund Assets Jumping in July
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows assets jumped in the latest week with month-end and Holiday outflows in the rearview. Year-to-date, MMFs are down by $148 billion, or -3.1%, with Institutional MMFs down $141 billion, or -4.3% and Retail MMFs down $7 billion, or -0.5%. Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets are up by $47 billion, or 1.0%, with Retail MMFs rising by $28 billion (2.0%) and Inst MMFs rising by $19 billion (0.6%). (For the month of June, MMF assets increased by $31.9 billion to $4.996 trillion according to Crane's MFI XLS, which tracks a broader universe of funds than ICI.) ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $26.45 billion to $4.56 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, July 6, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $15.42 billion and prime funds increased by $9.68 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $1.36 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs rising $16.5 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $10.0 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.015 trillion (88.1% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $437.6 billion (9.6%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $104.6 billion (2.3%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $9.96 billion to $1.46 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $4.01 billion to $1.14 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $5.67 billion to $224.63 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $270 million to $93.63 billion." Retail assets account for just under a third of total assets, or 32.1%, and Government Retail assets make up 78.2% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $16.50 billion to $3.10 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $11.41 billion to $2.87 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $4.01 billion to $212.99 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.09 billion to $10.97 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 67.9% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 92.7% 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.)
