A Wall Street Journal opinion piece entitled, "The SEC Gets Money-Fund Reform Half Right", written by Robert Pozen and Theresa Hamacher, endorses the floating NAV option and critiques the liquidity fees and gates option. It says, "The Securities and Exchange Commission recently proposed two new rules to help prevent sudden redemptions of money-market shares by investors from wreaking havoc on the financial system. The first proposal, requiring a "floating NAV" (net asset value), deserves support because it is limited to the most risky type of money-market funds: those held mainly by fast-moving institutions and invested largely in prime commercial paper. By contrast, the second proposal would apply to both institutional and retail money-market funds that invest mainly in commercial paper (so-called prime funds). Such funds would generally be required to impose "fees" and "gates" to slow down redemptions once a fund's liquid assets drop below 15% of total assets. This proposal could be counterproductive. To avoid these barriers to redemptions, investors would likely flee en masse as soon as their fund approached the 15% trigger.... While retail investors have been relatively slow to move in the past, the new rules will require prompt disclosure of the liquidity level of a money-market fund. When a fund's liquid assets dip below 20%, this will be widely noted by the financial press, so retail investors would be put on notice of impending barriers to redemptions. In response, some retail investors might shift their savings from money-market funds to bank deposits." (Note: Crane Data's Peter Crane has posted a Comment on this opinion piece pointing out some issues.)
