MMFs Jump Back Over $4.7 Trillion
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows the biggest MMF asset increase since March 2 and the second biggest jump of the year. Money funds registered the 5th increase in the past 6 weeks and moved back over the $4.7 trillion level for the first time since the first week of 2022. Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets are up by $82 billion, or 1.8%, with Retail MMFs rising by $189 billion (13.1%) and Inst MMFs falling by $107 billion (-3.3%). ICI shows assets up by $13 billion, or 0.3%, year-to-date, with Institutional MMFs down $147 billion, or -4.5% and Retail MMFs up $161 billion, or 10.9%. The weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $47.72 billion to $4.72 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, December 7, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $29.22 billion and prime funds increased by $21.53 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $3.03 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs rising $32.9 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $14.8 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.982 trillion (84.4% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $630.9 billion (13.4%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $105.4 billion (2.2%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $14.78 billion to $1.63 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $6.32 billion to $1.15 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $10.83 billion to $383.75 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $2.37 billion to $94.74 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 34.5%, and Government Retail assets make up 70.6% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $32.94 billion to $3.09 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $22.91 billion to $2.83 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $10.70 billion to $247.10 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $660 million to $10.63 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 65.5% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 91.7% of all Institutional MMF totals. (For the month of November, MMF assets increased by $47.7 billion to $5.113 trillion according to Crane Data's (revised) Money Fund Intelligence XLS, which tracks a broader universe of funds than ICI. Crane Data's Prime asset totals, which broke the $1.0 trillion level early in November, increased $28.7 billion last month to $1.024 trillion. 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.)
