While most fund companies have announced their major changes and fund reorganizations ahead of Money Market Reform later this year, many continue to tweak the remaining portions of their lineups. Invesco details additional changes to its money market fund lineup in a Feb. 4 update, entitled, "Money Market Regulatory Reform." Specifically, they say they will categorize the $7.9 billion Invesco Premier Portfolio as Retail, and they will convert the $951 million Invesco Money Market Fund from Prime to Government. When the conversion is complete on June 28, 2016, this fund will be renamed Invesco Govt Money Market Fund. Also, a posting entitled, "Dreyfus Product Changes and Timeframes," includes additional details on the BNY Mellon advisors' post-MMF reform lineup. Finally, BlackRock set the dates for shareholders to vote on the planned BofA fund mergers. We review all of these updates below.
Invesco released their initial money market fund lineup categorizations and changes 3 months ago, which we covered in our Nov. 10 News, "Schwab Files Variable NAV Money Fund; Invesco Announces Changes." That update included future categorization information on all of Invesco's funds except two, Premier Portfolio and Invesco Money Market Fund. They wrote at the time, "We will communicate plans for Invesco's other money market funds, the Invesco Money Market Fund and Premier Portfolio, not specifically mentioned in this letter, in the coming weeks."
The new update, addressed to "Invesco Money Market Fund Investors," says, "Since July 2014, when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued new rules for money market funds, Invesco has been thoughtfully evaluating the impact of money market fund reform and the impact this reform will have on our investors and our product line. Throughout this process, we have been listening to investors' questions and working through any concerns to ensure our products continue to meet their needs. In order to best serve our investors, we began to outline our money market fund product line in November 2015. We would now like to share further updates on those plans. Accordingly, we have reviewed these intentions with the funds' Board of Trustees."
It continues, "Invesco's Premier Portfolio intends to operate consistent with the constant net asset value (CNAV) retail money market fund classification. By keeping the Premier Portfolio a CNAV fund, we hope to accommodate current retail investors as well as other retail investors looking for a retail prime fund option." Currently, the Premier Portfolio totals $7.9 billion in assets, according to our MFI XLS.
In addition, the $951 million Invesco Money Market Fund will be converted to Government and be called the Invesco Government MMF on June 28. (Crane Data now counts a total of $267.4 billion in Prime funds that have been or will be converted to Government funds.) The update adds, "The Invesco money market funds will be in compliance with the new regulations prior to the October 14, 2016 deadline. The specific timing of changes will be determined and communicated in the coming months as final reform implementation takes shape."
With these new changes, Invesco will have 6 Government funds –- Government & Agency, Government Tax Advantage, Premier US Government, Treasury Portfolio, Invesco Government MMF, and Invesco VI Government MMF. It will have 3 Retail funds, including one Prime Retail, Premier Portfolio, and 2 Muni Retail, Tax-Exempt Cash and Tax-Free Cash Reserve. Finally, Invesco will have 3 Institutional funds -- Liquid Assets, STIC Prime, and Premier Tax-Exempt.
Dreyfus' MMF update" outlines its fund changes to date, and includes some new information -- including fund liquidations and name changes. It says, "As the money market fund industry prepares to implement the SEC's regulatory reforms, Dreyfus has worked diligently to re-align the money market fund line up to offer a diversified mix of cash management products to support the various liquidity needs and requirements of our valued clients. As such, we highlight below our revised money market product line up, including expected implementation dates."
As we wrote in our Nov. 18 News, "Columbia Threadneedle Going Govt; Dreyfus Details MF Moves; Deutsche," Dreyfus has merged its Municipal Money Market Fund into General Municipal MMF (Nov. 13); its Dreyfus NY AMT-Free Municipal Cash Management into Dreyfus NY Municipal Cash Management (Aug. 28); its Dreyfus Worldwide Dollar MMF into Dreyfus Liquid Assets (Sept. 18); and its Dreyfus 100% US Treasury into General Treasury Prime (Dec. 4).
Dreyfus has also liquidated, or is in the process of liquidating, 4 funds. Three have already been liquidated -- Dreyfus BASIC Municipal MMF (Aug. 18), New York AMT-Free MMF (Oct. 28), and BASIC New York Municipal MMF (Oct. 28.) Also, Dreyfus Money Market Reserves Fund will be liquidated on Feb. 26. Further, the "Service Shares" and the "Select Shares" of Dreyfus Treasury & Agency Cash Management fund will be liquidated on March 1.
Dreyfus will have 4 Prime Inst funds -- Dreyfus Cash Management; Dreyfus Institutional Cash Fund; Dreyfus Institutional Preferred Money Market Fund Prime; and, Dreyfus Institutional Preferred Plus Money Market Fund Prime -- and one Muni Inst fund, Dreyfus Tax Exempt Cash Management. Among the latest changes, Dreyfus removed the "Advantage" name from the Dreyfus Institutional Cash Fund. It also reclassified the Prime Shares as Inst Shares and Reserve Shares as Hamilton Shares for its Inst Preferred MMF.
In addition, Dreyfus will have 4 Prime Retail and 8 Muni Retail funds. The Prime Retail funds are: BASIC Money Market Fund, Liquid Assets, Prime MMF, and General MMF. Its new Prime Money Market Fund will be a name change from the Citizens Select Prime MMF, which will take effect on March 1. The 8 Muni retail funds include: Dreyfus AMT-Free Municipal MMF; California AMT-Free Municipal Cash Management; Municipal Cash Management Plus; New Jersey Municipal MMF; New York Municipal Cash Management; General California Municipal MMF; General Municipal MMF, and General New York AMT-Free Municipal.
Also, Dreyfus posted its Government/Treasury MMF lineup. Dreyfus' 5 Government funds include: Govt Cash Management; Govt Prime Cash Management; Inst Preferred Govt MMF (converted from Prime on 11/1); General Government Securities; and Dreyfus VI Fund Govt MMP (converted from Prime effective May 1, 2016). The 7 Dreyfus Treasury funds include: Institutional Treasury and Agency Cash Advantage; Inst Treasury Prime Cash Advantage; Treasury and Agency Cash Management; Treasury Prime Cash Management; General Treasury and Agency MMF; General Treasury Prime MMF; and Inst Preferred Treasury MMF, which will be renamed from Citizen Select Treasury MMF on March 1.
Finally, in a follow up to our Feb. 12 News, "BofA Details Fund Mergers Into BlackRock MMFs; WSJ on Big Retail MMFs," we learned through a new filing that BlackRock has set a March 31 date for its shareholder vote to merge the BofA money funds into BlackRock funds. The proxy statement says, "As you may know, BofA Global Capital Management Group, LLC, the direct parent company of BofA, the investment adviser to the funds of the Target Trust (the "BofA Funds"), has entered into an agreement to transfer investment management responsibilities of BofA to BlackRock, Inc.... [I]t is being proposed that certain BofA Funds, including the Target Fund, be reorganized into corresponding money market funds advised by BlackRock.... The enclosed materials relate to the proposed Reorganization of the Target Fund with the Acquiring Fund (as defined below). Shareholders of other BofA Funds are separately being asked to vote on the reorganization of their funds."
