The 25th largest money market fund family, Reich & Tang, has decided to liquidate its money market funds, citing regulatory changes. The press release, entitled, "Reich & Tang Announces Liquidation of its Money Market Mutual Funds," says, "Reich & Tang Asset Management, LLC today announced that the Board of Directors for each of its money market mutual funds has approved plans of liquidation for those funds. The liquidations, which represent approximately $9.5 billion in shareholder assets, are expected to be completed by July 31, 2015. After more than four decades Reich & Tang is moving away from its investment management business. "Our newest chapter is written," said Michael Lydon, Reich & Tang's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Given the ongoing regulatory changes that are being added to the already challenging landscape for money funds, the ability for mid-tier money fund sponsor firms to thrive has become significantly diminished. It is our responsibility to ensure that shareholders' best interests are being served at all times, and our process over the next few months will better help shareholders to stay that course." In shedding the investment management business, the firm will focus on growing its successful FDIC-insured deposit programs that provide valuable solutions to banks, trusts, brokerages, RIA's, and other private and public investment programs. Lydon adds, "The company was built on its expertise in cash management and this fine-tuning of our product line is a direct result of our ability to adapt our business to meet the needs of our customer base. This foundation of more than 40 years' experience has helped us to uncover further opportunities to grow relationships through our leading FDIC-insured sweep and funding programs, areas that will be our focus going forward." Reich & Tang is nationally recognized as a competitive provider of funding for banks as well as having one of the longest track records in extended FDIC- insured sweep programs in the bank and brokerage spaces. "The streamlining of our operations to focus on our FDIC deposit programs enables Reich & Tang to invest all of its resources into these programs and carve deeper into its niche as an expert in the deposit, liquidity, and short-term capital markets," concluded Lydon. Reich & Tang is an affiliate of Natixis Global Asset Management, one of the world's largest asset managers with $890 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2014." In other news, ICI released its latest "Money Market Mutual Fund Assets" report, which says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $18.19 billion to $2.69 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, March 11."
