The November issue of Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence was sent out to subscribers Thursday morning. The latest edition of our flagship monthly newsletter features the articles: "MMFs Dodge Debt Ceiling Bullet, Back to Battling Regs," which reviews the mini crisis over the Treasury debt ceiling and threat of technical default; "Going Global w/Liquidity: JPMAM's John Donohue," which interviews the leader of the largest money fund manager worldwide; and, "MMF Portals Continue Transparency, Direct Push," which discusses the flurry of enhancements announced by online trading platforms last month. We've also updated our Money Fund Wisdom database query system with Oct. 31, 2013, performance statistics and rankings, and will be sending out our MFI XLS shortly. (MFI, MFI XLS and our Crane Index products are available to subscribers at our Content center.) Our October 31 Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to go out on Tuesday, Nov. 12.
Our Debt Ceiling piece says, "In what seemed almost like a welcome relief from the seemingly permanent ultra-low yield and regulatory reform threats, money funds saw the threat of a Treasury debt ceiling default come and go, all within a matter of weeks in October. Assets fled and attention focused on what to do in the event of a Treasury default, and events unfolded just as they did the last time this overblown scare occurred late in the summer of 2011."
The November issue's lead story continues, "Money market mutual fund asset levels looked like a rollercoaster. (See the chart on page 2.) They had climbed slowly for 3 months straight through the end of September, then plunged by $70 billion in the first half of the month before rebounding strongly (up $60 billion) in the second half of the month. Treasury Institutional and Government Institutional funds drove the outflows, though Prime Institutional funds caught some of the rebound."
Our "profile" on JPMAM's John Donohue says, "In the latest Money Fund Intelligence, we speak with John Donohue, J.P. Morgan Asset Management's Head of Global Liquidity and Chief Investment Officer. Donohue shares his thoughts on market trends, portfolio strategies and the pending proposals for new money fund regulation. Our Q&A follows."
We write: "MFI: Tell us about JPMAM's history in money funds. Donohue: J.P. Morgan has been a provider of money market funds since 1987, which covers quite a few market cycles. In 2003, we decided to globalize the business and significantly bolster our investment platform, client service and fund management infrastructure. Back then, we had funds in just three currencies (USD, EUR, GBP). Now we have 30 different money market funds in eight currencies (including JPY, AUD, RMB, SGD, CNH) across 28 countries."
The article on the Portal Improvements explains, "As has been the case the last several years, the AFP's (Association for Financial Professionals') annual corporate treasury conference (most recently in Las Vegas) triggered a flurry of press releases, many from online money fund trading "portals". Among the most recent announcements -- Goldman Sachs' portal finally joined the "transparency" bandwagon, offering various look-through options on money fund portfolio holdings, SunGard released a survey on portal usage, BNY Mellon revealed enhancements to its Liquidity Direct portal, Cachematrix debuted a new module, ICD added functionality, and MyTreasury added funds to its portal."
Finally, registration is now open and the agenda is ready for Crane's Money Fund University, our "basic training" event, which will be held Jan. 23-24, 2014 in Providence, Rhode Island. Our 4th annual MFU will contain a heavy focus on money fund regulations, as well as the basics on money funds, interest rates, and overviews of various money markets. Our next big show, Crane's Money Fund Symposium, will take place June 23-25, 2014, in Boston. Registrations and sponsorships are now being accepted for this too, and the preliminary agenda is being finalized. (Watch for the agenda later this month.)
