European Parliament Committee
The Institutional Money Market Funds Association (IMMFA) posted a link on its "Money Market Funds in the News page to a Recording of the European Parliament ECON Committee Meeting from last Monday (Dec. 2). The Committee on Economic Affairs video contains a discussion of 5.0 Money Market Funds (ECON/7/13748) starting around 15:30 on the recording. (See the European Union's "New rules for Money Market Funds proposed – Frequently Asked Questions".) Participants of the committee meeting say the "shadow" banking sector has grown to $71 trillion and is 1/4 of global financial assets. Rapporteur Said El Khadraoui of Belgium comments, "There have been calls for regulation.... The Commission made a proposal on money market funds in September last, and that was very much a part of that call for greater regulation.... As a first exchange of views, I think the EC's proposal is a good basis for further work.... While money market funds can be useful ... there's no questions of getting rid of these investments." The speaker then comments that he'd prefer a "buffer" to be implemented immediately and to eliminate "CNAV" (constant NAV funds) in 5 years time. He also added that he wasn't crazy about the proposed ban on money fund ratings. They added that next week [this week] is the deadline for amendments, that there would be a vote in February, and that [the Committee] should be able to finish before the end of Parliamentary time (May 2014). However, many observers doubt that action will be taken before there are new elections for Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in May.
