The New York Federal Reserve Bank just published its money fund repo counterparty list. As we mentioned in our March 9 Crane Data News "NY Fed Expands Counterparties for Reverse Repos to Money Funds", "The Federal Reserve Bank of New York today announced the beginning of a program to expand its counterparties for conducting reverse repurchase agreement transactions" including money market mutual funds.
Today's posting says, "Effective August 18, 2010, the New York Fed has accepted the following money market funds as reverse repurchase transaction counterparties: Bank of America Bank of America Cash Reserves Fund, BlackRock Institutional Management Corp BlackRock Liquidity Funds: TempFund, Charles Schwab Investment Management, Inc. Schwab Cash Reserves, Schwab Value Advantage Money Fund, Deutsche Investment Management Americas, Inc. Deutsche Cash Management Master Portfolio, The Dreyfus Corporation Dreyfus Cash Management Fund, Dreyfus Government Cash Management Fund, Dreyfus Institutional Cash Advantage Fund, Federated Investment Management Company Federated Government Obligations Fund, Federated Prime Obligations Fund, Fidelity Management & Research Company Fidelity Cash Reserves, Fidelity Institutional Prime Money Market Portfolio, Fidelity Institutional Money Market Portfolio, Fidelity Institutional Government Portfolio, FAF Advisors, Inc. First American Prime Obligations Fund, Goldman Sachs Asset Management Goldman Sachs Financial Square Prime Obligations Fund, Goldman Sachs Financial Square Money Market Fund, Goldman Sachs Financial Square Prime Obligations Fund, Invesco Advisors, Inc. AIM STIT Liquid Assets Portfolio, J.P. Morgan Investment Management Inc. JPMorgan Prime Money Market Fund, JPMorgan US Government Money Market Fund, Legg Mason Partners Fund Advisor, LLC Western Asset/Liquid Reserves Portfolio, Vanguard Group, Inc. Vanguard Market Liquidity Fund, Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund, Wells Fargo Funds Management Wells Fargo Advantage Government Money Market Fund, and Wells Fargo Advantage Heritage Money Market Fund."
The NY Fed adds, "Inclusion on this list simply means that, should the New York Fed conduct reverse repurchase agreements, those listed would be eligible to participate. It does not mean that any listed eligible reverse repurchase transaction (RRP) counterparty is eligible for any other program or transactional relationship with the New York Fed. Further, it does not in any way constitute a public endorsement of any listed eligible RRP counterparty by the New York Fed, nor should inclusion on the list be viewed as a replacement for prudent counterparty risk management and due diligence. Each listed fund applied to be an eligible RRP counterparty under the criteria and application published by the New York Fed on March 8, 2010."
These funds represent $900 billion, or almost one-third of all money fund assets. Rueters explains in its coverage (see our "Link of the Day," "Reverse repos are one of the tools that the Fed can use to remove excess reserves in a bid to avert a resurgence in inflation. In these operations, the Fed exchanges Treasury and other securities it holds for cash for a short period."