The April issue of Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence newsletter shipped to subscribers this morning. The latest edition includes articles entitled, "ICI Defends $1, Unveils Liquidity Exchange Bank," "Concentrating on Cash: Reich & Tang Funds," and "Portfolio Composition & Money Fund Holdings." MFI also includes News, including a brief on "March 2010 Outflows Rival Sept. 2008 for Largest Declines on Record," as well as performance rankings and top-performing money market mutual fund tables.
Our lead article reviews recent comments from ICI President & CEO Paul Schott Stevens, who strongly defended the money market mutual fund industry and its $1.00 NAV standard, and revealed that the ICI is pursuing a 'stronger liquidity backstop' for the industry. MFI writes, "The LEB as currently envisioned would provide $50 billion in additional redemption liquidity and could provide additional liquidity in a financial crisis by borrowing from the Fed's discount window. It would require participation from and would be available to all prime money funds."
Our monthly "Profile" features Reich & Tang, manager of the Daily Income Money Market Funds. This subsidiary of Natixis Global Asset Management, has been managing cash since 1974, making it one of the oldest money fund managers in existence. We ask President & CEO Michael Lydon about the company's 'white-labeled' money funds, about its FDIC-insured sweep program, and about the cash investment marketplace in general.
Finally, our piece on "Portfolio Composition & Holdings" reviews the new disclosure mandates from the SEC's Money Market Fund Reform and says, "As October 5 and December 7 deadlines approach for money funds to begin reporting standardized monthly portfolio holdings information, Crane Data is gearing up to track this information. We've been collecting portfolio composition statistics and 'hotlinking' to holdings in our Money Fund Intelligence XLS product, and we've recently begun compiling money fund holdings files from the largest prime funds."
Look for more excerpts in coming days, or e-mail info@cranedata.us to request our latest Money Fund Intelligence. Subscriptions to MFI are $500 a year and include additional web features like access to archived issues and expanded fund "profile" pages.
