Market fund assets went up to $5.13 trillion in the week ending March 22 due to the widening crisis in global banking.
The total assets went up by $117.41 billion during the week, according to the data compiled by Investment Company Institute. The government's assets increased by $131.84 billion to $4.26 trillion.
Prime funds went down $10.83 billion to $765.33 billion while tax-exempt money market funds fell $3.61 billion to $106.95 billion at the same time.
Money market funds are typically used as a short-term savings instrument, emergency reserve or general allocation of cash, according to Nafis Smith, head of Vanguard's taxable money markets. When the Fed raises rates, bank deposit rates will adjust much more slowly than a money market fund's rate, he said. You might be better off with a money market portfolio. The Investment Company Institute said that the assets for retail money market funds increased by $15.21 billion to $1.86 trillion for the week ending March 22.
The government money market fund assets increased by 2.2% to $1.26 trillion, according to retail funds. The prime money market fund assets fell 1.8% to $506.55 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets fell 2.5% to $96.40 billion.
Over the same period, assets for institutional money market funds dropped from $102.20 billion to $3.27 trillion.
The government money market fund assets went up by 3.6% to $3 trillion compared to prime money market fund assets fell by 0.7% to $258.78 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets fell 9.6% to $10.55 billion.