Wells on Tax Relief, Stress Testing
Wells Fargo Funds has released a series of updates over the past few months in its "Money Market Fund Regulatory Resource Center." We missed some of these when they first came out, including one entitled, "Tax relief for floating-NAV money market fund." But Wells Fargo's Twitter account, @WFAssetMgmt, "tweeted" links to them over the past several days to remind us. (Note: Crane Data's Twitter account is @cranedata -- we normally "tweet" when we update the News on www.cranedata.com and invite you to "follow" us!) The Tax relief piece says, "To reduce the burden of tax compliance, the U.S. Treasury and the IRS issued guidance that will simplify the tax accounting for floating-NAV money market funds (MMFs). This guidance applies to institutional money market funds, both prime and tax exempt. Government and retail money market funds will not be affected because they will continue to transact at a stable $1.00 NAV. An overview of the IRS guidance is provided below.... Under the IRS guidance, simplified accounting, known as the NAV method, will allow shareholders in floating-NAV money market funds to measure net gains and losses rather than calculate transaction-by-transaction gains and losses." Another Wells piece, entitled, "Enhanced stress tests for money market funds," states, "As part of the new money market rules scheduled to take effect in 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will require money market funds to conduct enhanced stress tests by April 2016. These stress tests will be more robust than the current requirements -- which have been in place since 2010 -- because the SEC wants to not only further minimize the risk of runs but also reduce disparities in the quality and comprehensiveness of stress tests across money market funds.... Wells Fargo Asset Management already conducts enhanced stress tests Since September 2015 -- seven months before the April deadline -- Wells Fargo Asset Management has been meeting the enhanced stress-testing requirements.... Three points worth remembering 1. Our stress tests have always been more comprehensive than the SEC requirements, and we continue to be at the forefront of risk management with more rigorous-than-required stress tests. 2. Our money market funds have never breached the 30% weekly liquidity threshold that the SEC put in place in 2010. 3. Our focus on liquidity and capital preservation will remain in place in all of our Wells Fargo Money Market Funds." Finally, Wells released its latest monthly "Overview, Strategy, and Outlook" Portfolio Manager commentary. It says, "Although improving somewhat in recent weeks, credit quality has been under pressure, as evidenced by spreads widening significantly since mid-2014."
