The July issue of Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence newsletter went out to subscribers this morning along with June 30 performance data, rankings and indexes. Our latest flagship publication includes the articles, "Concerns Over European Holdings Latest Hit to MFs," which discusses the recent outflows and worries over Greece; "State Street Global's Meier & Smith on MMFs," which interviews the two SSgA veterans; and, "NAV Buffer Takes Center Stage at MF Symposium," which reveals that the money fund industry and others are now seeing Fidelity's "reserve" plan as the most likely path forward for new regulation.
The lead article reveals that Prime money funds saw inflows of $4.1 billion on Wednesday (the first increase in almost a month) and inflows of $7.5 billion yesterday. It says, "Concerns about money funds' heavy European holdings, triggered by a Moody's warning on French banks and a speech by Boston Federal Reserve President Eric Rosengren saying money funds may be vulnerable, dominated the headlines in June. While these worries were likely overblown and money funds remain several steps away from troubles at the edges of Europe, the heavy press coverage did trigger moderate outflows in Prime Institutional money funds in the second half of June."
It continues, "Prime money fund assets declined by $81.7 billion in June and another $13 billion in the first five days of July, according to our Money Fund Intelligence Daily. But the outflows remain modest and have slowed since peaking June 24. Prime and overall assets have even begun rebounding the past two days. (They were up by $4 billion on Wednesday, July 6, Prime's first solid increase since June 8.)"
The July issue also says, "In our latest fund manager 'profile,' MFI interviews State Street Global Advisors' Steve Meier, Chief Investment Officer for Global Cash, and Barry Smith, Global Head of SSgA's Cash Business. Money fund veterans Meier and Smith discuss the Boston-based manager's history with cash, recent challenges in the short-term markets including concerns about Europe, and the regulatory outlook for money funds." (Look for excerpts in coming weeks, or contact us to request the story.)
Our other lead story, "NAV Buffer Takes Center Stage at MF Symposium," says, "We recently hosted approximately 400 money fund professionals in Philadelphia for our third annual Crane's Money Fund Symposium. While Europe was of course a hot topic, the regulatory outlook was also a major area of discussion. Presenters and participants seemed to think that the possible options for further money fund reform are narrowing, and that the NAV Buffer has become the most likely candidate for change."
Our monthly Money Fund Intelligence XLS, which contains a host of performance statistics on money funds, rankings and our Crane Indexes, has been uploaded to the website and will be e-mailed to clients shortly, and our Money Fund Wisdom database has been updated with June 30, 2011 data. Note that our June 30 Money Fund Portfolio Holdings data set will be available to Wisdom subscribers next Friday, July 15.
