Moody's put out a release entitled, "Moody's Affirms Bank of Ireland Money Market and Bond Fund Ratings". It says, "Moody's Investors Service has affirmed the Aaa/MR1+ fund ratings of the Bank of Ireland Euro Liquidity Fund, Bank of Ireland Sterling Liquidity Fund, and the Bank of Ireland US Dollar Liquidity Fund. At the same time, Moody's has also affirmed the Aa/MR2 bond fund ratings of the Bank of Ireland Enhanced Cash Euro Fund. The funds are managed by the Bank of Ireland Asset Management. The affirmations of the funds' ratings follow last week's downgrade of Ireland's sovereign debt rating to Baa1 from Aa2, and today's downgrade of the Bank of Ireland's long term senior debt and bank deposits to Baa2 from A1, and its short-term debt rating and bank deposits to Prime-2 from Prime-1. The rating outlook for Ireland and the Bank of Ireland is negative. Until recently, the BOI Money Market Funds had significant exposure to the Bank of Ireland's obligations and other Irish banks, which was at the limit of Moody's tolerance for Aaa-rated money market funds. However, the BOI Money Market Funds have successfully managed down their Irish bank exposures over the last two weeks, and such exposure is today 0% of each fund's total invested assets. All of the BOI Money Market Funds' Irish assets were overnight-maturing securities immediately prior to the downgrade of Ireland's sovereign debt rating, following recent steps taken by BIAM to reduce maturities. These actions improved materially the funds' liquidity position and reduce their sensitivity to market risk. The Enhanced Cash Euro Fund, which is a bond fund, currently has 12.6% exposure to Ireland, with 8.9% of such exposure maturing by January 2011." (Note that Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence International does not track the Bank of Ireland funds.)
