Crane Data's flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter recently sent out a Subscriber Survey entitled "Regulatory Reforms and the 2011 Outlook" in an attempt to gauge money fund providers' and investors' preferences and thoughts on future money fund regulations and changes. We now invite website visitors to participate in the survey too at: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22BN3WKTR3A. We review the questions below, and we will release our results in the January issue of Money Fund Intelligence and later on www.cranedata.com.
The Crane Data Survey first asks, "1. This question is in regard to the U.S. Treasury's long-awaited "Report of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets: Money Market Fund Reform Options" paper, which details "a number of options for reforms related to money market funds." Which of the options do you think is the best alternative for money market mutual fund regulation? a. Floating net asset values; b. Private emergency liquidity facilities for MMFs; c. Mandatory redemptions in kind; d. Insurance for MMFs; e. A two-tier system of MMFs with enhanced protection for stable NAV funds; f. A two-tier system of MMFs with stable NAV MMFs reserved for retail investors; g. Regulating stable NAV MMFs as special purpose banks; h. Enhanced constraints on unregulated MMF substitutes; i. Other, please specify."
The survey then asked, "How would you rank these options for Money Market Fund Regulatory Reform (from 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest)?" It then asked, "Which of these options do you think would do the most harm? (The choices were: Floating net asset values, Private emergency liquidity facilities for MMFs, Mandatory redemptions in kind, Insurance for MMFs, A two-tier system of MMFs with enhanced protection for stable NAV funds, A two-tier system of MMFs with stable NAV MMFs reserved for retail investors, Regulating stable NAV MMFs as special purpose banks, Enhanced constraints on unregulated MMF substitutes, and Other, please specify."
We also asked, "On a scale of 1 to 10 (highest), how important is the $1.00 stable value to money market mutual funds? The survey then asked respondents, "What is the most important issue facing money market funds today?" The choices included: Regulatory changes; Consolidation; Ultra-low interest rates; Rising rates; Competition from banks or new products; and, Other, please specify.
The MFI survey then asked, "What is your outlook for the future of money market mutual funds?" Possible responses included: Very bearish; Bearish; Neutral; Bullish; and, Very Bullish. We also asked, "How much do you expect money fund assets to increase or decrease in 2011? Options included: Decrease by over 20%; Decrease by 10-20%; Decrease by 0-10%; Little or no change; Increase by 0-10%; Increase by 10-20%; and, Increase by over 20%.
Finally, we asked respondents, "What is your title or job function? Options included: Money fund portfolio manager, analyst or trader; Money fund sales or marketing; Money fund business development or board; Money market security issuer or dealer; Money market fund investors; Money fund service provider; Money fund rater or regulator; and, Other, please specify. Two demographic questions: "What is your name, title and e-mail address?" and "Are you interested in seeing Crane Data collect or cover any information or news that it's not currently tracking?" were optional.
