Muni Money Funds Continue to Slip

After seeing positive flows in the earlier part of the month, tax-exempt money market funds continued their downward slope — albeit to a lesser degree than last week — as they reported outflows for the second week in a row, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

The total net assets of the 431 reporting tax-exempt money funds fell by $2.44 billion in the week ending Jan. 21 to $286.11 billion. The outflow pace was reduced from the $4.21 billion that exited in the prior week when total net assets settled at $288.55 billion. The prior week's outflows contrasted, however, with the $6.18 billion of inflows the funds netted in the week ended Jan. 7 — nearly double the $3.22 billion the funds accumulated in the week ended Dec. 31 and higher than inflows for any week in 2012.

The average, seven-day simple yield for the tax-exempt funds held at 0.01% from the prior week, while the average maturity increased by one day to 33 days compared to last week.

In the taxable market, meanwhile, the 1,043 reporting money funds declined by $12.85 billion as total net assets slid to $2.384 trillion in the week ended Jan. 22. That compares to the previous week when $11.95 billion fled the funds, leaving total net assets at $2.397 trillion.

The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable money funds remained at 0.02%, while the average maturity increased by one day to 48 days compared to the prior week.

Overall, the combined assets of the 1,474 reporting funds fell by $15.29 billion to $2.670 trillion in the week ended Jan. 21, versus $16.16 billion of outflows in the prior week when total net assets dropped to $2.686 trillion.

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