With less than a month to go in the comment period for the SEC's latest Money Market Fund Reform Proposal, Crane Data has decided to conduct a brief survey of its Money Fund Intelligence subscribers in order to gauge our reader's thoughts and to guide a comment letter on the SEC's Proposed Money Market Fund Reform. We also wanted to seek some reader feedback on a handful of other important issues. (We e-mailed it to subscribers yesterday.) We have also now opened up the MFI survey to readers of and visitors to www.cranedata.com. The survey should only take a couple of minutes and may be accessed at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Z77DJ95. Thank you for your participation, and please let us know if we can be of assistance in providing data for or feedback on any of your comment letters. We show the questions below, FYI.
The Crane Data's 2013 Money Fund Intelligence Subscriber Survey: SEC MMF Reform Proposal and Major Issues (August 22, 2013) begins with the question: 1. This question is in regard to the U.S. S.E.C.'s Money Market Fund Reform Proposals, which "would reform the way that money market funds operate in order to make them less susceptible to runs that could harm investors." Which of the options do you think is the best alternative for money market mutual fund regulation? (See http://www.sec.gov/spotlight/money-market.shtml for details on the proposal.) a. Floating net asset values for Prime Institutional MMFs. b. Emergency liquidity fees and "gates" for MMFs. c. A combination of floating NAVs and fees/gates for MMFs. d. Neither option, only additional disclosures. e. Other, please specify.
The survey next asks: 2. How would you rank these options for Money Market Fund Reform? (from 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest): Floating net asset values for Prime Institutional MMFs, Emergency liquidity fees and "gates" for MMFs, A combination of floating NAVs and fees/gates, Additional disclosures, or, Rejection of both floating NAV and fees/gates option. We also ask: 3. Which of these options do you think would do the most harm? Floating net asset values for Prime Institutional MMFs, Emergency liquidity fees and "gates" for MMFs, A combination of floating NAVs and fees/gates, Additional disclosures for MMFs, or, Other, please specify.
The MFI Survey then asks readers, "4. On a scale of 1 to 10 (highest), how important is the $1.00 stable value to money market mutual funds? We also seek feedback on the following question: 5. What is the most important issue facing money market funds today? Regulatory changes, Ultra-low interest rates, Rising rates, Lack of supply in money markets, Consolidation, Competition from banks or new products, or, Other, please specify.
In addition, we ask: 6. What is your outlook for the future of money market mutual funds? Very bearish, Bearish, Neutral, Bullish, or Very Bullish. The survey's question No. 7 is: 7. How much do you expect money fund assets to increase or decrease in 2013? Decrease by over 10%, Decrease by 5-10%, Decrease by 0-5%, Little or no change, Increase by 0-5%, Increase by 5-10%, or, Increase by over 10%.
The survey asks: 8. What is your title or job function? Money fund portfolio manager, analyst or trader, Money fund sales or marketing, Money fund business development or board, Money market security issuer or dealer, Money market fund investor, Money fund service provider, Money fund rater or regulator, or, Other, please specify. It asks: 9. What is your name, title and e-mail address (optional)? Name, Company, Address, and Email Address. Finally, we ask: 10. Are you interested in seeing Crane Data collect or cover any information or news that it's not currently tracking?
Watch for results and details in our September Money Fund Intelligence issue, and look for our comment letter to the SEC summarizing the results just prior to the Sept. 17 deadline. To comment directly to the SEC, visit Submit Comments, and click here to see the Comments to-date.
