Virtus Investment Partners' CEO George Aylward discussed exiting the money market fund business in Virtus's 3Q earnings call recently. The transcript on Seekingalpha.com states, "Regarding the money market funds, as we pointed out in the press release, they were liquidated in October. These funds were low-fee, noncore and an immaterial part of the business. We made the decision that the economics and requirements to offer money market funds were not compelling, so we exited that business. As mentioned in our press release, last week we liquidated our 3 money market funds, which represented a noncore component of our business. At September 30, 2014, the money market funds had $1.2 billion of assets that represented 2% of total assets. From an earnings perspective, the liquidation has no impact on run rate investment management fees due to a 0 basis point net fee rate for the quarter as a result of substantial fee waivers given the low interest rate environment." In other news, T. Rowe Price said MMF fee waivers were up in 3Q. On fee waivers, they report, "Money market advisory fees and other fund expenses voluntarily waived by the firm to maintain positive yields for investors in the third quarter of 2014 were $14.6 million, an increase of $0.7 million from the comparable 2013 quarter. For the first nine months of 2014, the firm has waived $43.9 million in such fees compared with $36.8 million in the 2013 period. The firm expects it will continue to voluntarily waive such fees for the remainder of the year and into 2015." Northern Trust also saw higher fee waivers, according to Northern's 3Q earnings report. "Money market mutual fund fee waivers in C&IS, attributable to persistent low short-term interest rates, totaled $16.7 million, compared to waived fees of $15.3 million in the prior year third quarter." Also, Bloomberg wrote, "`Treasurers Clinging to Liquidity, JPMorgan Survey Shows." It says, "The scars of 2008 are still fresh for company treasurers and investment officers as they keep half of their firms' cash in bank deposits, according to a global survey by JPMorgan Chase & Co. The 300 cash managers surveyed are favoring liquidity over yield even as half of them face declining earned interest. They're putting just a quarter of their assets in money-market funds that face tougher rules from U.S. regulators, the survey shows."
