Stradley's Swirsky on NY Fed Paper
Stradley Ronon's Joan Ohlbaum Swirsky wrote recently on, "Money Market Fund Reform: New York Fed Provides First Official Details of Possible Reform Options." She said, "A staff report (the Report) released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) provides the first official written outline of two possible reform options for money market funds. The options would require money market funds to either: adopt a floating net asset value (NAV); or both: (a) maintain a capital buffer, and (b) impose on shareholders a minimum account balance that would be used to offset losses that arise and cause the fund to break the dollar. The Report focuses on the benefits of the second aspect of the latter of these reform options: a requirement that each shareholder maintain a minimum account balance (a minimum balance at risk or MBR) between 2 percent and 5 percent of his/her account that would be retained in the fund if the shareholder sought to redeem more than 98 percent (or 95 percent) of his/her account." See also, ICI's weekly "Money Market Mutual Fund Assets" says, "Total money market mutual fund assets decreased by $3.95 billion to $2.551 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, August 1, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Taxable government funds increased by $1.89 billion, taxable non-government funds decreased by $5.85 billion, and tax-exempt funds were unchanged."
