The August issue of Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence, our flagship monthly publication, emails to subscribers this morning along with our monthly MFI XLS and Crane Index products and July 31, 2010, performance data and indexes. The latest edition contains the articles, "Consolidation Happens: MF Mergers, Liquidations," which discusses recent mergers and liquidations; "ICI's Stevens Unveils Stable Value Coalition," which excerpts ICI President Paul Stevens' speech at our conference last week; and, "Regs, Rates, Reality Rule at Crane MF Symposium," which reviews some of the highlights of Crane Data's second annual money fund conference.
Our "Consolidation" article says, "Following what seems like years of predictions, some signs of real consolidation finally began occurring in the money fund business in July. We've seen mergers before, similar to the one that just happened between the Wells Fargo Advantage Funds and the Evergreen Funds. But pure liquidations and outsourcing deals have been surprisingly rare." The piece reviews recent liquidations and mergers, including recent moves by Raymond James' Eagle MMF to exit, RidgeWorth outsourcing to Federated, and AARP Money Funds' planned exit from the business.
We excerpted some of Paul Stevens' speech last week, but we print much more of it in our latest edition. Stevens says, "First, the industry and the Securities and Exchange Commission have already scored some impressive gains in making money market funds more secure.... Second, we're not through with this process.... A third point I'd like to make is that money market funds remain firmly opposed to proposals that would force them to abandon their stable per-share value." He proceeds to list the proponents and benefits of the stable NAV regime, and lists the myriad risks and problems with moving to an untested floating system.
Finally, our latest newsletter also briefly reviews our recent Crane's Money Fund Symposium, saying, "We were thrilled by the turnout -- it was easily the largest gathering of money fund professionals and cash investors ever held with over 330 participants -- and encouraged by the overall tone of the event. The mood was surprisingly upbeat given the monumental challenges of unprecedented regulatory uncertainly, unending near-zero interest rates, and unyielding pessimism about the money fund businesses' future." (Subscribers to MFI are welcome to request copies of the PDF conference binders; non-subscribers may purchase the binder, which includes most of the presentations and supporting materials, for $250.)
