Monetary Services Indexes (MSI)

Richard Anderson and Barry Jones have produced a new MSI series representing a comprehensive revision of previous data. Suggested citation of users of the data: Anderson, Richard G. and Barry E. Jones, "A Comprehensive Revision of the Monetary Services (Divisia) Indexes for the United States", Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, September/October 2011, pp. 325-359.

The new MSI differ from the earlier series in a number of aspects:

• The components' own rates of return have been revised. The own rate measure for small-denomination time deposits has been simplified. The implicit return on demand deposits has been eliminated. In addition, newly collected historical data on deposit rates during the Regulation Q period are now used for savings and time deposits.
• The levels of aggregation have been changed. Five MSI series are now available: MSI-M1, MSI-M2, MSI-MZM, MSI-M2M, and MSI-ALL. The five MSI series differ with respect to their included assets. MSI-M1 and MSI-M2 include the same assets as the Federal Reserve Board's M1 and M2 aggegates. MSI-MZM includes all zero-maturity assets, that is, assets that are immediately usable as medium of exchange -- it includes the same assets as the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis MZM monetary aggregate, including institutional-type money market mutual funds. MSI-M2M includes the same assets as M2 but omits the small-denomination time deposits that are included in M2. MSI-ALL includes all the assets that are included in the previous four aggregates. It corresponds to the assets in M2 plus institutional money market mutual funds, and currently is the broadest monetary aggregate that can be produced. MSI M3 can no longer be constructed due to lack of data, but a historical series is constructed through February 2006.
• The components of the aggregates are adjusted for the effects of retail deposit sweeping.
• The MSI are now constructed using two alternative benchmark rate series. Both alternatives are based on an upper envelope of a set of rates that includes the own rates for the components included in MSI ALL plus selected short-term money market rates that previously had been used to construct own rates for components of (discontinued) MSI L. Our "preferred" benchmark rate equals 100 basis points plus the largest rate in the set of rates. Our alternative benchmark rate equals the larger of the preferred benchmark rate and the Baa corporate bond yield. The alternative benchmark rate more closely resembles the one previously used to construct the MSI (Anderson, Jones and Nesmith, Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis Review, 1997).

The MSI_P file contains our 'preferred' MSI, which are calculated using our preferred benchmark rate. The MSI_A file contains our 'alternative' MSI which are calculated using our alternative benchmark rate. The SUMS file contains simple sum monetary aggregates that are directly comparable to the MSI. M2M, MZM and M2 correspond to the monetary aggregates on FRED. M1ADJ is M1 adjusted for retail sweeps, ALL is M2 plus institutional type money market mutual funds.

Download new MSI series (MSI_A.xls)

Download new MSI series (MSI_P.xls)

Download comparable simple sum monetary aggregates (SUMS.xls)

Note that the Monetary Services Indexes are available in FRED also.

Articles

The MSI measure the flow of monetary services received each period by households and firms from their holdings of monetary assets (levels of the indexes are sometimes referred to as Divisia monetary aggregates). For a survey of the relevant monetary aggregation theory, see Anderson, Richard G., Jones, Barry E. and Travis D. Nesmith, "Monetary Aggregation Theory and Statistical Index Numbers," Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, January/February 1997, pp. 31-51. For a shorter overview and details of the current data, see Anderson, Richard G. and Barry E. Jones, "A comprehensive Revision of the Monetary Services (Divisia) Indexes for the United States," Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, September/October 2011, pp. 325-359.

Library of Related Publications

We continue to add to our document library working papers and published articles on the MSI. We urge authors to submit their papers; published papers must be accompanied by appropriate copyright information and waivers. Unpublished working papers and work-in-progress will be reviewed prior to posting. Some may be rejected. Posting of working papers shall not to be interpreted or publicized as "publication," nor as an endorsement the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Previous Vintage

The previous vintage of the MSI can be downloaded as a zipped archive. These data were not updated after February 2006.

Download MSI series from February 2006