Money Fund Assets Fall After Surge
ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money fund assets fell after rising for 6 weeks in a row. Money fund assets turned positive for the year-to-date for the first time in 2018 last week, and they remain slightly positive so far in 2018. MMFs have increased by $17 billion, or 0.6%, YTD, and they've increased by $229 billion, or 8.7%, over 52 weeks. ICI writes, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $22.80 billion to $2.85 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, June 13, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $26.11 billion and prime funds increased by $5.09 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $1.78 billion." Total Government MMF assets, which include Treasury funds too, stand at $2.243 trillion (78.6% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs stand at $474.8 billion (16.6%). Tax Exempt MMFs total $137.0 billion, or 4.8%. They explain, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $177 million to $1.03 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $684 million to $632.10 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.54 billion to $269.19 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $1.68 billion to $129.00 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 36.1%, and Government Retail assets make up 61.4% of all Retail MMFs. ICI's release adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $22.98 billion to $1.82 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $25.43 billion to $1.61 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.55 billion to $205.65 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $103 million to $7.95 billion." Institutional assets account for 63.9% of all MMF assets, with Government Inst assets making up 88.3% of all Institutional MMFs.
