Our May 2010 issue of Money Fund Intelligence features the articles: "Money Fund Intelligence Celebrates 4th Birthday," which reviews the history of Crane Data's flagship newsletter; "Capital Preservation Still In at American Century," which interviews Portfolio Managers Denise Latchford, Todd Pardula, and Lynn Paschen; and "ICI Fact Book Says Outflows From Low Rates," which excerpts from the Investment Company Institute's annual fund analysis and statistics. Look for excerpts in the coming days or let us know if you'd like to see the latest issue.
Money Fund Intelligence, Crane Data's flagship newsletter, celebrates its fourth birthday this month. The money fund information company was founded in May 2006 by Peter G. Crane and Shaun Cutts. As we wrote in this issue, "MFI is written for both money market investment professionals and investors. Our core mission is to deliver low-cost and high quality money fund information, performance statistics, and indexes. We hope we have succeeded to date."
In other news, the SEC's Buddy Donohue spoke Friday to close the Investment Company Institute's annual conference in place of Chairman Mary Shapiro. The prepared remarks say, "As you know, the SEC has a strong commitment to working with stakeholders from every facet of the financial markets, including industry groups like ICI. In fact, shortly after I returned to the SEC last year, ICI provided very constructive input into proposed rules designed to improve the resiliency of money market funds. The money market rules that emerged were, I believe, better as a result of your input, and are already helping to bolster protections for investors without imposing undue burdens on the funds themselves."
The SEC speech continues, "Now, I'm sure that there are some here who may disagree with that assessment. That is to be expected. We do after all play different roles in the financial markets -- we are never going to see eye-to-eye on every issue. But I'd like to believe we both have very similar goals: Honest markets that efficiently allocate capital and reward investors, and, a financial system that gives investors and their advisors the tools they need to make rational decisions. I am committed to working with you and with other industry representatives to achieve that goal."
The ICI transcript says, "Following his prepared remarks, Donohue indicated that the Commission may be waiting for the President's Working Group on Financial Markets to release its long-awaited report on money market funds prior to proceeding on further regulations: 'We think [the report] will help initiate dialogue around some of the issues.' In January, when the SEC adopted amendments to Rule 2a-7 governing money funds, Schapiro said staff had begun to consider several additional changes for a potential second round of reforms, including considering moving from the standard of a stable $1 NAV to a floating NAV for money market funds. The industry strongly opposes such a change, arguing that it would eliminate money market funds."
