Moody's rates Aaa/MR1+ two Blackrock constant NAV money market funds, according to a press release issued Friday. It says, "Moody's Investors Service has assigned Aaa/MR1+ money market fund ratings to the Institutional Cash Series plc -- Institutional US Treasury Fund and the Institutional Cash Series plc -- Institutional Euro Government Liquidity Fund. The funds form part of the Institutional Cash Series plc, an investment company with variable capital, organised as an umbrella fund under the laws of Ireland." Senior Vice President Kathryn Kerle says, "The ratings reflect Moody's expectation that the funds will employ very conservative investment strategies to achieve their objectives of preserving principal and providing liquidity. Moody's also believes that the funds will maintain very high credit quality." She "expects the funds to maintain a weighted-average maturity of 60 days or fewer" and, "Moreover, as the funds are not expected to invest in securities with a remaining maturity of more than 397 days, their exposure to spread duration risk should be very limited." The release adds, "According to the investment manager, both funds will invest primarily in government securities, US Treasury bills (in the case of the US Dollar Fund) and direct obligations of France, Germany or The Netherlands (in the case of the Euro Fund), or reverse repo transactions collateralised by these securities. Given Moody's expectation that the funds will invest in either overnight repo or direct obligations of highly-rated governments, the funds should be very liquid."
