Invesco Pushes European Reform Date
Invesco Global Liquidity previously announced that it will convert its Short-Term Investment Company (Global Series) plc "STIC Global" constant-NAV money market funds to LVNAV funds beginning Jan. 14, 2019, but they now tell us that they are "converting our fund range to LVNAV Funds on 11th March 2019." While European Money Fund Reforms are scheduled to go live on January 21, firms have apparently been given extra time by regulators. (We haven't seen any official communications on this yet though.) A recent "Investor's Guide" produced by Invesco noted that "the majority of existing CNAV MMFs are converting to the LVNAV fund category." Conversions to Low Volatility NAV operation involve STIC Global US Dollar Liquidity Portfolio (with reported assets of $4.92 billion as of Jan. 7), STIC Global Euro Liquidity Portfolio (E1.35B) and STIC Global Sterling Liquidity Portfolio (L1.57B). Invesco ranks as the 18th-largest complex reporting to Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence International with total assets of $8.57 billion, when converted to U.S. dollars. Its communication to investors observed that local Invesco offices will be providing updates in light of a recent ruling against use of a share-redemption mechanism for funds operating with negative yields, which applies to the Euro Liquidity Portfolio. The Invesco piece assured investors that it is highly unlikely that the recategorized LVNAV funds will break the 20-basis point "collar," comparing the daily amortized-cost derived NAV to the mark-to-market valuation, allowing them to continue to transact at E/L/$1 per share. "There has not been a single occasion where we broke the 20-bps collar" over the past 10 years, it stated. "Whilst the reforms introduce key new elements to MMFs, we believe there should be very little change seen by Sterling and U.S. Dollar investors from an operational standpoint on a day to day basis. Further details on the changes to the Euro Portfolio will be communicated to investors in due course. Invesco has the benefit of having already successfully transitioned our U.S. MMF business in line with the SEC's reforms in October 2016. Investors can be assured Invesco Global Liquidity will continue to be a core business for Invesco. We will continue to strive to deliver a range of liquidity products with the same unwavering objectives of preservation of principal, liquidity and then yield, in that order."
