Seasonal outflows slowed for tax-exempt money market funds as $4.49 billion escaped the industry and total net assets settled at $259.42 billion in the week ended April 29, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.
Outflows declined from the previous week, when $5.58 billion of cash fled the industry, the most in four years, as funds suffered the seasonal effect of federal income tax season. In the week ending April 30 last year, tax-exempt money market funds had $4.8 billion of outflows.
The previous week’s outflows were the largest this year. They increased from $3.63 billion the week ended April 15, at the beginning of the seasonal outflow period tied to the filing deadline for federal income taxes for individuals and corporations.
The beginning of May could mark an end to the heavy seasonal outflows, judging by historical flow patterns. Last year in the week ended May 7, $2.83 billion flowed back into the industry, according to data from the fund tracker.
The average seven-day simple yield for the 423 tax-exempt money funds remained steady at 0.02% last week, while the average maturity declined by one day to 27 days.
In the taxable market, the 1,025 reporting money funds had $14.55 billion of outflows, reducing net assets to $2.299 trillion in the week ended April 30. In the prior week $4.75 billion of inflows boosted total net assets to $2.314 trillion.
The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable funds was unchanged from the prior week at 0.02%, while the average maturity held steady at 48 days.
Overall, the combined net assets of the 1,448 reporting money funds declined by $19.04 billion to $2.559 trillion in the week ended April 30, versus last week when the total net assets declined by $831.7 million to $2.578 trillion.
