Late last week, U.K. local government publication "Room 151, wrote "MMF vote delay could see reforms hit the rocks," which says, "Proposed regulations which could hit local authority investments in money market funds (MMFs) could be scuppered by a decision to delay a vote on the matter during a stormy session of a European Parliament committee. Last month, representatives of the MMF investment industry, along with investors from the private and public sector visited Brussels to campaign against the changes. And last week, the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee (ECON) voted 23 to 15 to delay a vote on the issue, after some members complained that the issue had not been discussed properly."
Room 151 explains, "A statement released by ratings agency Fitch following the vote said: "The ECON committee has a rescheduled vote to finalise draft rules on 10 March. With European Parliamentary elections due in May, it is by no means certain that the previous timetable, which envisaged a full European Parliament vote in April, can be met.""
The article quotes, "Michael Quicke, chief executive of CCLA, "During our discussions in Brussels, our principal interest was to make sure that the committee was fully aware of the landmine they were putting their foot on. What has happened is people are coming round to the fact that there is a real issue here. I think we played a small part in that."
Room151 adds, "He said that if the committee continued to find it difficult to reach a compromise on the proposals before European elections in May, the issue would have to be reconsidered by the new Parliament, with the potential that it goes back to the drawing board."
In other news, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York issued yet another "Statement to Revise Terms of Overnight Fixed-Rate Reverse Repurchase Agreement Operational Exercise," which tells us, "As noted in the September 20, 2013, Statement Regarding Overnight Fixed-Rate Reverse Repurchase Agreement Operational Exercise, the Open Market Trading Desk at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has been conducting daily, overnight fixed-rate reverse repo operations as part of an operational readiness exercise. Beginning with the operation to be conducted tomorrow, Wednesday, March 5, the per counterparty bid limit for each operation will increase from $5 billion to $7 billion. All other terms of the exercise will remain the same."
It adds, "As an operational readiness exercise, this work is a matter of prudent advance planning by the Federal Reserve. These operations do not represent a change in the stance of monetary policy, and no inference should be drawn about the timing of any change in the stance of monetary policy in the future."
