Friday saw a flurry of money fund ratings moves from agencies Standard & Poor's and Moody's. The two biggest moves: Moody's withdrew its Aaa/MR1+ rating from offshore Standard Chartered Global Liquidity Fund USD, as Standard Chartered exits the money fund business, and S&P rated Federated Money Market Management Fund AAAm. Federated's new 13 bps, $100 million minimum Premier Share Class had been put on hold for a number of months, but the fund is now live.
S&P also withdrew the AAAm rating on AMF Money Market Fund, run by Shay Assets Management, and downgraded ratings on AMF Ultra Short Mortgage Fund (to Af from AAAf). It also withdrew ratings on AMF Short U.S. Govt Fund and AMF Ultra Short Fund. The AMF website says, "However, in response to the unprecedented turmoil and dislocation in the mortgage securities market, the Fund has temporarily discontinued accepting new purchase orders for the AMF Ultra Short Fund, AMF Ultra Short Mortgage Fund and the AMF Short U.S. Government Fund. Given these circumstances, the Board believes that the benefits derived from having ratings no longer justify the cost, and the decision was made to terminate the rating." (Crane Data does not track AMF Money Market Fund.)
Moody's also downgraded the market risk ratings on two offshore enhanced yield funds, Morgan Stanley US Dollar Enhanced Yield Fund and MS Euro Enhanced Yield Fund. It affirmed the funds' Aa ratings, but cut the USD Enhanced Yield's MRR from MR1 to MR5 and cut the Euro Enhanced's MRR from MR1 to MR2 "to reflect the very high level of price volatility ... as a result of their sizeable investment in asset-backed securitities at a time of extreme market turbulence."
Finally, Capital One Funds have filed to reorganize and merge into corresponding Fidelity funds. If approved, Capital One Cash Reserve Fund would merge into Fidelity Inst MM: Prime MMP III, and Capital One U.S. Treasury MMF would merge into Fidelity Inst MM: Treasury Port III.
