Another Week, Another Asset Record
The Investment Company Institute's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows MMF assets hitting record levels for 8th week out of the past 9 (they were down a hair 3 weeks ago), breaking above the $5.6 trillion level last week for the first time ever. ICI's weekly asset series rose to a record $5.643 trillion, and shows MMFs up over $1.09 trillion, or 24.0%, over the past 52 weeks. Assets are up by $908 billion, or 19.2%, year-to-date in 2023, with Institutional MMFs up $469 billion, or 15.3% and Retail MMFs up $438 billion, or 26.1%. (Totals are up $822.3 billion, or 17.1%, since 2/22/23.) Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen $1.091 billion, or 24.0%, with Retail MMFs rising by $606 billion (40.1%) and Inst MMFs rising by $484 billion (15.9%). Their weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $17.70 billion to $5.64 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, September 13, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $16.26 billion and prime funds increased by $2.98 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $1.54 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs rising $7.6 billion and Retail MMFs rising $10.1 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.637 trillion (82.2% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $888.7 billion (15.8%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $116.7 billion (2.1%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $10.14 billion to $2.12 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $5.34 billion to $1.39 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $5.76 billion to $618.30 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $964 million to $105.79 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 37.5%, and Government Retail assets make up 65.8% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $7.57 billion to $3.53 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $10.92 billion to $3.25 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $2.78 billion to $270.44 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $572 million to $10.88 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 62.5% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 92.0% of all Institutional MMF totals. According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets broke the $6.0 trillion level on Sept. 1 and hit a record $6.046 trillion on Tuesday, 9/2, before easing back to $6.036 trillion Wednesday. Assets have risen by $56.8 billion in September through 9/13 after rising by $98.3 billion in August and $34.7 billion in July. 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.
