Bloomberg writes "JPMorgan, Natixis Woo 'Paranoid' Customers With New Money Funds". The article says, "JPMorgan Chase & Co. and a U.S. unit of French bank Natixis SA are offering money-market mutual funds aimed at wooing back customers spooked by the financial crisis into moving their money to federally insured deposits. The new offerings promise to keep the average maturity of their holdings at 10 days or fewer, one-fourth that of competing funds, according to the companies and researcher Crane Data LLC. Shorter maturities allow managers to shift more quickly out of a troubled issuer and into other securities or cash." Bloomberg quotes Peter Crane, president of Crane Data LLC in Westborough, Massachusetts, which tracks the $2.79 trillion industry, "They are aimed squarely at the paranoid cash manager." The piece adds, "The JPMorgan Current Yield Money Market Fund, opened at the beginning of October, will maintain an asset-weighted maturity on holdings of 10 days or fewer under 'normal market conditions,' according to the prospectus.... RNT Natixis Liquid Prime Portfolio, a prime fund run by Reich & Tang Asset Management LLC that opened Nov. 30, will maintain an asset-weighted average maturity of nine days or fewer, said Tom Nelson, head of sales and marketing at the New York-based firm." (See also Crane Data's Oct. 1 News "JPMorgan Rolls Out Ultra-Short Money Mkt Fund, Enhanced Cash Fund" and our Nov 3 News "Reich and Tang Files Ultra-Short MMF, RNT Natixis Liquid Prime Port".)
