MMF Assets Retreat from Record
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money fund assets falling after hitting records for two weeks in a row. Over the past 52 weeks, money fund assets are up by $212 billion, or 4.6%, with Retail MMFs rising by $291 billion (19.7%) and Inst MMFs falling by $79 billion (-2.5%). ICI shows assets up by $70 billion, or 1.5%, year-to-date in 2023, with Institutional MMFs down $21 billion, or -0.7% and Retail MMFs up $91 billion, or 5.4%. The weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $16.36 billion to $4.81 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, February 8, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $22.31 billion and prime funds increased by $12.95 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $6.99 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs falling $22.7 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $6.3 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $3.953 trillion (82.3% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $748.6 billion (15.6%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $103.9 billion (2.2%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $6.33 billion to $1.77 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $1.59 billion to $1.19 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $13.48 billion to $486.82 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $5.56 billion to $94.30 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 36.8%, and Government Retail assets make up 67.1% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $22.69 billion to $3.04 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $20.73 billion to $2.77 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $534 million to $261.75 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $1.43 billion to $9.60 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 63.2% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 91.1% of all Institutional MMF totals. Month-to-date in February (through 2/8/23), money fund assets have decreased by $3.3 billion to $5.182 trillion, according to Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence Daily. (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.)
