Following on the heels of our European Money Fund Symposium last month in London (and our Money Fund Symposium this past summer in Philadelphia), Crane Data is now preparing for its next event, our "basic training" Money Fund University. Our seventh annual MFU will be held at the Westin Jersey City Newport, Jersey City, NJ, January 19-20, 2017. Crane's Money Fund University is designed for those new to the money market fund industry or those in need of a concentrated refresher on the basics. The event also focuses on hot topics like money market regulations, money fund alternatives, offshore markets, and other recent industry trends. The affordable ($500) educational conference (see the preliminary agenda here or e-mail us to request our brochure) features a faculty of the money fund industry's top lawyers, strategists, and portfolio managers. (Note: Crane Data would like invite those attending next week's Association for Financial Professionals annual conference in Orlando to stop by Booth #208 to say "Hello.")
Money Fund University offers attendees a 2-day course on money market mutual funds, educating attendees on the history of money funds, the Fed, interest rates, ratings, rankings, money market instruments such as commercial paper, CDs and repo, plus portfolio construction and credit analysis. At our Jersey City event, we will also take a look at some remaining issues involving regulations, and we'll have a mini "Bond Fund University" double segment on ultra-short bond funds.
The morning of Day One of the 2016 MFU agenda includes: History & Current State of Money Market Mutual Funds with Peter Crane, President & Publisher, Crane Data; The Federal Reserve & Money Markets with Joseph Abate, Director, Fixed Income Strategy, Barclays and Mark Cabana, MD, Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Interest Rate Basics & Money Fund Math with Cabana and Phil Giles, Adjunct Professor at Columbia University and, Ratings, Monitoring & Performance with Greg Fayvilevich, Director, Fitch Ratings, Michael Masih, Associate Director, Standard & Poor's Global Ratings Services, and Rochelle Genetti, Managing Director, First American Funds.
Day One's afternoon agenda includes: Instruments of the Money Markets Intro with Teresa Ho, Vice President, J.P. Morgan Securities; Repurchase Agreements with Teresa Ho and Tyler Williams, Associate, J.P. Morgan Securities; Treasuries & Govt Agencies with Sue Hill, Senior Portfolio Manager; Federated Investors and, and Mike Watt, Senior MD, INTL FCStone Partners; Tax-Exempt Securities & VRDNs with Shaloo Savla, Research Analyst, Fidelity Investments; Commercial Paper & ABCP with Rob Crowe, Director, Citi Global Markets, Director, Money Markets, Citi Global Markets; CDs, TDs & Bank Debt with Vanessa Hubbard, Vice President, Wells Fargo Securities and Marian Trano, Senior Vice President and Treasurer, Bank Hapoalim; and, Credit Analysis & Portfolio Management with Adam Ackermann, VP and Portfolio Manager, J.P. Morgan A.M..
Day Two's agenda includes: Money Fund Regulations: 2a-7 Basics & History with Joan Swirsky, Of Counsel, Stradley Ronon, Jack Murphy, Partner, Dechert LLP and Stephen King, Senior Counsel, Perkins Coie LLP; Outstanding Issues with MMF Reforms with Stephen Keen, Senior Counsel, Perkins Coie, Jack Murphy, Partner, Dechert LLP and John Hunt, Partner, Sullivan & Worcester LLP; and, Bond Fund University: Ultra-Shorts with Peter Crane (and a speaker TBD). The conference ends with its annual MFU "Graduation" ceremony (where diplomas are given to attendees).
New portfolio managers, analysts, investors, issuers, service providers, and anyone interested in expanding their knowledge of "cash" investing should benefit from our comprehensive program. Even experienced professionals may enjoy a refresher course and the opportunity to interact with peers in an informal setting. Attendee registration for Crane's Money Fund University is just $500, exhibit space is $2,000, and sponsorship opportunities are $3K, $4K, and $5K. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Westin Jersey City.
We'd like to thank our past and pending MFU sponsors –- BlackRock, Fitch Ratings, Dreyfus/BNY Mellon CIS, Federated, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Invesco, S&P Global Ratings, Dechert LLP, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley, SSGA, First American Funds/US Bank, INTL FCStone, and Wells Fargo Funds -- for their support, and we look forward to seeing you in Jersey City in January. E-mail Pete Crane (pete@cranedata.com) for the latest brochure or visit www.moneyfunduniversity.com to register or for more details. Crane Data is also preparing the preliminary agendas for its new Bond Fund Symposium (March 23-24, 2017, at the Boston Hyatt Regency), and our "big show," Money Fund Symposium, which will be held June 21-23, 2017, at the Atlanta Hyatt Regency.
In other news, Bloomberg writes on the "Conservative Ultra-Short Bond Fund" sector in the article, "Specter of New Threat Emerges in $1 Trillion Money-Fund Exit." Author Liz McCormick writes, "Regulations designed to safeguard the $2.7 trillion U.S. money-market industry threaten to steer cash toward higher-risk alternatives. Investors may respond to the market overhaul that took effect last week by seeking the higher yields of short-term bond funds, say Crane Data LLC, Fitch Ratings and Goldman Sachs Asset Management. In a sign of the segment's appeal, a category that Crane dubs conservative ultra-short bond funds, with a maturity mostly less than one year, has swelled to a 19-month high of almost $31 billion." (See also our latest Bond Fund Intelligence and our Oct. 17 News, "Sept. Bond Fund Intelligence Features Fitch, Fidelity's Doug McGinley.")
The Bloomberg piece continues, "But these funds aren't subject to the same standardization as their money-market counterparts, raising the prospect that investors will be surprised by the degree of potential losses and even run for the exits if values slide. That may undermine some of the benefits from the money-fund revamp, which most firms agree has gone a long way to reducing systemic risks in an industry that helped fuel the financial crisis."
It tells us, "Yet the uninspiring returns on government-only funds may lead investors to seek another destination. The 30-day yield for those offerings, an annualized measure of the period's earnings, was about 0.17 percent as of Oct. 17, compared with a yield of 0.81 percent for Crane's conservative ultra-short bond-fund index. Prime institutional funds yield 0.29 percent on average."
Finally, Bloomberg adds, "For Peter Crane, president of Westborough, Massachusetts-based Crane Data, the risk is that investors lured to short-term bond funds for their relatively higher yield may flee if they see share values slump, as holders of prime funds did in 2008, spurring a broader market disruption. "Investors still haven't been taught the lesson that higher yield or higher return means higher risk," he said. "We've seen this movie before, and every other time in history it ended badly."
