Fed in a Giving Mood
Federated's Debbie Cunningham writes in her latest "Month in Cash" commentary, "The Fed is in a Giving Mood." She explains, "It's the holiday season, and it appears the Federal Reserve has given money funds a present, amazing as that sounds. Readers of my column know I don't mince words when it comes to my frustration with regulators. This year they have given plenty of reasons to feel that way, from the SEC's new rules for money funds, the months it took to fill some of the Fed's open seats and its continual tinkering with the Reverse Repo Program (RRP). The latter has been very helpful at times, giving us some yield by setting a floor on overnight lending. But from an operational perspective, it is hard to plan ahead when the program's parameters keep shifting. The latest change, when the Fed put a cap on the RRP of $300 billion and didn't guarantee the yield if bids went above that, was particularly problematic. We knew that would put extra pressure on the typical month-end, window-dressing transaction period. Sure enough, the facility broke down at September quarter end when the bids exceeded the cap and the offered rate was zero. But in the minutes of October's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, released mid-November, the New York Fed said it was poised to offer a term RRP that should alleviate the month-end pressure. There hasn't been much elaboration about it, other than that it will go into effect this month, probably by at least the first week, and that it is an additional $300 billion. That's good because the capacity needs are at quarter end—and in this case it also is year end. So that is a big positive, and we don't get many positives from the Fed." In other news, the U.K.-based Investment Week writes, "Aviva compensates investors as money market fund makes loss. The article says, "Aviva has issued redress to customers after a money market fund [sic] which it said would protect capital fell into the red, according to the reports. The firm's Aviva Deposit fund has lost 2.3% over the past five years, belying a statement in old marketing literature which suggested initial investments would be protected, according to the Telegraph. While the company pointed to record low interest rates as being to blame, the paper also highlighted the impact of the product's 1% charge." Finally, Montreal's Fiera Capital issued a press release, "Fiera Capital announces closure of Money Market Mutual Fund." It reads, "Fiera Capital Corporation, investment fund manager of the Fiera Capital Money Market Fund, announced the closure of the Fund, effective on or about January 30, 2015."
