The November issue of Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence was sent to subscribers Wednesday morning, along with our October 31, 2012 monthly performance data and rankings. Our Money Fund Wisdom database query website has been updated, and our Money Fund Intelligence XLS monthly spreadsheet, and Crane Index money fund averages will be released shortly. (Our next monthly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings with 10/31/12 data are scheduled to be released on the 7th business day, Friday, Nov. 9.) The latest edition of MFI features the articles: "MMFs Reopen Talks w/SEC; Step Up Attacks on FSOC," which discusses recent regulatory rumors and news; "JPM's Flex Class Prepares for Negative Yield World," which reviews developments in the Euro money fund marketplace; and, "Higher Repo Rates Lead to Fee Waiver Relief in 2012," which includes some rare good news for money fund providers.
Our MMFs Reopen Talks piece comments, "The regulatory reform saga continues. Bloomberg reported and the ICI confirmed that several large fund companies met recently with the SEC and Treasury Department officials to discuss a possible compromise. Though no details or confirmation of the meeting has been released by regulators, we assume they were being briefed on BlackRock's "standby liquidity fee" and similar "gating" proposals. At the same time, fund industry supporters have stepped up their attacks on the Financial Stability Oversight Council, or FSOC."
The article adds, "Though the SEC and Treasury haven't confirmed the meeting, the ICI issued a brief comment, saying, "ICI and the fund industry are engaging directly with the Securities and Exchange Commission in a united effort to constructively build on the success of the 2010 reforms." (ICI's Money Market Working Group is also scheduled to meet in Boston this week.)"
Our monthly "profile" piece says, "Late last month, J.P. Morgan Asset Management announced the launch of a new "Flexible Distributing" class for its Luxembourg-domiciled Euro-denominated money market funds. The "Flex" shares would allow the funds to maintain a stable NAV in a potential negative yield environment by automatically selling shares to cover expenses and debits from any yields below zero."
Our Waiver Relief article says, "While the party may be over soon, stubbornly high rates on repurchase agreements have been a major factor in providing fee waiver relief to money funds during 2012. We show the DTCC's average repo rates (GCFF Repo Index) (available via www.dtcc.com) for Treasury, Agency and MBS-backed repo, and we display the average expense ratios for money funds in a chart."
MFI adds, "Repo rates have climbed from averaging 16 to 18 bps during the first quarter of 2012 to averaging 28 to 33 bps during the third quarter of this year. Repo rates have tripled since the DTCC began posting averages on them in December 2011, rising from 0.08% for Treasuries and 0.09 for Agencies."
The November MFI also contains monthly News, Indexes, top rankings and extensive performance tables. E-mail info@cranedata.com to request the latest issue. Subscriptions to Money Fund Intelligence are $500 a year and include web access to archived issues and fund "profiles". Additional users are $250 and bulk pricing and "site licenses" are available. Crane Data's other products include: Money Fund Intelligence XLS ($1K/yr), MFI Daily ($2K/yr), Money Fund Wisdom ($4K/yr), MFI International ($2K/yr), and Brokerage Sweep Intelligence ($1K/yr).
In other news, see also Bloomberg's article, "FSB Sets 2013 Deadline for New Money-Market Fund Rules". It says, "Global regulators set a September 2013 deadline to present tougher rules for money-market mutual funds, repurchase agreements and other so-called shadow banking activities as part of a broader push to reduce risk in the financial system. The Financial Stability Board also said that it would issue draft rules next year targeted at non-bank institutions whose failure would roil the global economy."
