This month, MFI speaks with Christopher Tufts, the new Global Head of Portfolio Management and Trading for the money market fund business at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Tufts had been Head of Portfolio Management for the U.S. funds before taking on an expanded role late last year. We discuss the current rate environment, supply and pending regulatory issues, among other things. Our Q&A follows. (Note: The following is reprinted from the June issue of Money Fund Intelligence, which was published on June 7. Contact us at info@cranedata.com to request the full issue or to subscribe.)
MFI: Give us a little history. Tufts: J.P. Morgan Asset Management has been managing money market funds since 1987, and as an institution, J.P. Morgan has been solving client liquidity needs for over 200 years. Today, we manage about $885 billion in short-term fixed income assets, of which roughly $735 billion sits in money market funds and liquidity separately managed accounts.... The money market fund offering has evolved and expanded significantly over time, and today is comprised of over 30 funds, managed in 8 different currencies across an array of on- and offshore vehicles, including our pioneering AAA-rated RMB offering in Asia.
The portfolio management team is distributed across the U.S., London and Hong Kong with an average of 22 years of experience. Without a doubt, I think that global reach and depth of experience throughout multiple rate cycles and stressed scenarios over the years helped us emerge from last year's volatility in a strong position across the platform.... I've been with J.P. Morgan my entire career, having started with the firm in the summer analyst program in 1995.
MFI: What is your biggest priority? Tufts: It may sound obvious, but the top priority for the portfolio management team never really changes -- we're focused first and foremost on the core deliverables that clients expect from us: prudent liquidity management and capital stability. We've learned over the years that discipline around our core investment philosophy and investment process is the best path to long-term success for our clients and our business. Having said that, the market and industry context that surrounds those objectives seems to be in constant motion.
Right now, we've really got our work cut out for us just getting cash invested every day at yields north of zero. And that holds true across locations and currencies, not just in the U.S. dollar money market funds. In some ways, the investment process becomes a bit more simplified in a zero-rate environment -- there are fewer decisions to be made. But in a market like this one, which is feeling the cumulative impact of so many different technical liquidity factors, the trading days can feel especially challenging. Our current focus from a portfolio management point of view is on matching increased client liquidity balances with investable supply that's being pressured in the opposite direction. We kept our Treasury and Government funds open for client subscriptions during the peak of the inflows last year, and doing the same going forward is really the key priority.
One example of how we're doing that is the work we've done around repo counterparties to ensure we have the deepest possible list of repo relationships and the most potential avenues for supply. We've been active in cleared repo, we've added trading capabilities with insurance companies, and we've leveraged broader bank relationships at J.P. Morgan to uncover new sources of collateral. In the prime funds, we work with a global team of dedicated credit research analysts to ensure that we're tapping into every issuer possible of high-quality, short term debt in the market across every global jurisdiction.
MFI: What about other challenges? Tufts: In many ways, today's most significant challenges are very familiar. This is not our first experience with managing liquidity funds in a zero-rate environment, or a negative-rate environment in the case of our European funds. Nor is it the first time we've been faced with potential changes to the product regulatory structure. I think what feels different and perhaps a bit more challenging from a market perspective this time is just the trend and outlook for technicals in the market. In the U.S., during the last run of near-zero rates, you had a pretty steady decline of money market fund balances -- roughly $1 trillion from 2009 to 2015. In contrast, you've seen industry assets move up about $1 trillion since March of last year.
The demand for high-quality short-term assets from the money market fund industry, particularly Treasury and Government funds, has been far outpacing available supply. We're also seeing lower market rates this cycle across the board.... So, the combination of robust fund flows, scant supply and low market rates are undoubtedly the biggest challenges.
MFI: What are you buying? Tufts: In USD Government and Treasury MMFs, where yield curves are particularity flat and supply challenges are particularly acute, we're leaning heavily on the overnight and 1-week repo markets. We've been less interested in buying U.S. Treasury and Agency paper further out the curve. We made those trades toward the end of last year and early this year, while we still had a bit of yield to work with. So the recent trades have favored repo, and more and more of that repo activity is being directed to the Fed's overnight Reverse Repo Program (RRP). You've seen the recent surge in the overall program balances. For now, the marginal new dollar coming in to our Government and Treasury repo funds will likely land with the Fed. We're also obviously using the regular T-Bill auctions to get invested … given the current zero floor at auctions.
In our prime funds, we've generally had a bit more to work with in terms of trading out the curve. But the CP and CD markets have not been immune to the effects of excess liquidity in the system and curves have flattened there as well, leading us to shorten our purchasing activity more recently. The challenge there has been finding banks that want to take new overnight and 1-week deposit balances. So, I think you'll see our prime funds start to lean more heavily on the Fed RRP as well in the coming weeks and months.
MFI: How about customer concerns? Tufts: In general, clients haven't been expressing any particular points of concern. I think the low-rate environment globally is frustrating for everyone, but as we discussed, that hasn't really slowed down the inflows thus far. Certainly, potential regulatory changes for prime funds, globally, is a topic of active discussion.... They're keen to understand the potential range of outcomes and also the timing.
We're seeing continued, significant interest in ultra-short bond funds, both U.S. dollar and non-dollar, and that's been a consistent theme with clients since central banks dropped rates globally last year.... We're talking through offerings in that space with clients and trying to understand their visibility and accuracy of cash flow projections to make sure that we pair them with the right product.... Our ultra-short Managed Reserves strategy, which is led by David Martucci and a team of seasoned, global portfolio managers, is sitting at all-time high of more than $100 billion.
MFI: What about ESG? Tufts: I think we've tried to take a very measured and deliberate approach around ESG. We started with integrating ESG factors into the investment process and reflecting those inputs in the prospectus and the other fund documentation. Really, it was just about calling out ESG factors more explicitly, since we're using those within our credit analysis process in terms of building approved issuer lists for the funds.... We've also done some more targeted ESG initiatives like our new Empowering Change program.
MFI: Are fee waivers hurting? Tufts: Fee waivers are just a fact of life in multiple currencies and funds at the moment. The low-rate environment impacts clients, intermediaries and obviously the economics of our business. We're fortunate that the platform at J.P. Morgan Asset Management is very broad and we operate at considerable scale.... The scale really gives us the ability to weather periods like this one.... In terms of fee competition, you've seen some outliers occasionally in terms of net yields and waiver levels, but in general, the pack is pretty tightly clustered. I wouldn't expect to see much deviation from here. Not until there's more of a curve to work with and we start to talk about Fed liftoff, which we think is still quite a ways off.
MFI: Tell us about the trading portal. Tufts: We made sure when we launched Morgan Money that it was based on state-of-the-art technology with all the features any client could ask for. [The portal] was developed to meet the needs of modern liquidity managers, powered by a trading and analytics platform that integrates seamlessly with a client's existing technology set.... We have over 1,800 clients on the platform today, that represents about $157 billion in AUM.... I think that speaks to the value proposition that clients are finding in the Morgan Money platform.
MFI: What's your outlook going forward? Tufts: Even at these very low levels of income, money funds continue to offer critical benefits that clients have always valued: same-day liquidity, diversification, professional management and credit analysis. So, we're seeing clients continue to pump money into this sector at a pretty good clip.
On the regulatory side, we do anticipate further regulatory changes coming down the pipeline for prime funds both onshore and offshore. But we’re still in the early stages of that process. Regulators did a lot after the financial crisis to make these funds more resilient to credit and liquidity shocks.... I think the good news is that regulators seem more or less intent on building on the work that they've already done, and they appear focused on adjusting the existing regulations to enhance the resilience of these funds in stressed markets rather than fundamentally changing the product structure altogether.
In terms of our stance on reform, you can read it in our comment letter to the SEC regarding the President's Working Group (PWG) report. We think the 30% weekly liquidity linkage to gates and fees created a 'bright line' for clients that sped up redemption activity last spring. We think the single most impactful change they could make would be to delink gates and fees from that 30% liquidity requirement which would substantially improve the resilience of prime and tax-free money funds in the future.
Beyond that, regulators are also evaluating the entire short-term fixed-income market for potential improvements. This is a positive for the sector overall and for the clients who rely on these products.... So, we'll march forward, and as they say: 'Liquidity rolls on.'
