IN's "Keeping an eye on stable-value"
Investment News features "Keeping an eye on stable-value", which interviews Michael Markov, head of Markov Processes International LLC. The piece says an area of concern of Markov's is stable-value funds. (See Markov's original article, "Stable Value a free lunch?".) Markov told IN, "There are $500 billion in these funds, the SEC doesn't regulate them and no one knows what's inside them. They're attractive because they are supposedly risk-free, yet offer much higher returns than money market funds. How is that possible?" Investment News adds, "He's not sure, and is doing research to find out what's really going on under the hood." Markov added, "`Nothing is risk-free; there are always risks." See also, The Wall Street Journal's "Regulator on Fees: Hands Off, Courts", which quotes SEC Commissioner Troy Paredes, "Speaking at the Investment Company Institute's 11th annual Capital Markets Conference, Mr. Paredes also said he had questions about the SEC's plans for money-market funds. He questioned the SEC's proposal to ban funds from investing in so-called second-tier securities ... calling the Reserve Primary collapse 'an outlier event.' He said he has seen no evidence that there was a causal relationship between second-tier securities held by the funds and the problems that money-market funds faced last year. It should be asked whether banning money-market funds from holding any second-tier securities could hurt their diversification and yield, Mr. Paredes said." Finally, see WSJ's "SIV Liquidation Set as Demand on Rise", which mentions the "liquidation sale of the assets of Victoria Finance, a structured investment vehicle formed by Ceres Capital Partners LLC." The Journal says, "Friday's sale is the largest auction of structured products since the $7.1 billion liquidation of the Whistlejacket structured investment vehicle, or SIV, in April."
