BNY Mellon Investment Management announced Monday that its money market funds will keep the Dreyfus name, but that it is "rebranding the Dreyfus retail business and long-term mutual funds in the U.S. to align with the BNY Mellon Investment Management brand, effective on or about June 3, as part of a larger global brand initiative," we learned from fund industry news source ignites. The release, entitled, "BNY Mellon Investment Management to Rebrand Dreyfus ... Money Market Funds to Retain Dreyfus Name," states, "This rebrand will more clearly reinforce for investors BNY Mellon Investment Management's reputation and position as one of the world's largest investment managers. To reflect the strong heritage of Dreyfus in cash management strategies, the Dreyfus brand will be retained on money market funds."
Mitchell Harris, chief executive officer of BNY Mellon Investment Management, explains, "This is another step in our strategy to illustrate how we offer investors the best of both worlds: providing clients with access to the investment capabilities and creative solutions from our world-class investment managers, combined with the global scale and financial stewardship of BNY Mellon. In the retail space, having a strong and recognizable brand is increasingly important to investors. The rebranding of Dreyfus is a significant milestone in supporting the growth of our U.S. retail business."
The release explains, "As part of this rebranding initiative: the 'Dreyfus' brand on 94 long-term mutual funds, with approximately $63B in assets under management, will be replaced with 'BNY Mellon;' Dreyfus will remain the brand on 27 Dreyfus-managed money market funds, with approximately $160B in assets under management; the BNY Mellon Cash Investment Strategies division of Dreyfus will be renamed 'Dreyfus Cash Investment Strategies.' There will be no changes to the investment objectives, strategies, portfolio managers or sub-investment advisers for the newly branded "BNY Mellon" long-term mutual funds or related products as a direct result of this initiative."
It also points out that, "The Dreyfus Corporation (the investment adviser for the Dreyfus Family of Funds) will be renamed 'BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc.'" and "MBSC Securities Corporation (the distributor of the Dreyfus open-end funds) will be renamed 'BNY Mellon Securities Corporation.'" (See new fund filings for Dreyfus's Retail Money Funds and Dreyfus's Inst MMFs for more details.)
BNY's release adds, "This initiative follows an extensive brand review that included feedback from investors and intermediaries. BNY Mellon Investment Management's eight investment managers will continue with individual brands to reflect their direct relationships with institutional investors, while the BNY Mellon Investment Management brand will become more prominent for global retail investors."
Matt Oomen, head of Global Distribution, comments, "Investing centers around meeting the needs of clients, and the strength of our business is that it is built around our investors. With intermediary and retail clients looking for investment partners with a breadth of capabilities and strong brands, leading with BNY Mellon Investment Management as our U.S. retail brand will make it easier for them to identify and access our full suite of investment solutions. In the institutional space, our clients value direct access to our investment managers and their strategies. As a result, our investment managers' brands lead in this space."
In other news, rates tracked by our Brokerage Sweep Intelligence report were unchanged in the latest week, but there are stark differences compared to rates from a year ago. On March 2, 2018, six out of 11 brokerages reported lower-tier ($1.00-$4,999) rates and APYs that were 0.10% or lower. On Friday, March 1, five out of 11 brokerages reported rates and APYs that were 0.30% or above in their lower-priced tiers. Three brokerages (RW Baird, Schwab and TD Ameritrade) have raised their rates since last Dec. 28; the remaining eight reported no changes across the board.
RW Baird led the pack with low-tier figures of 0.55% as of March 1. Its payouts are 0.80% to 1.30% in the tiers beginning at $250,000 and beyond $5 million, respectively. Baird offers households with account values of $250K or more Dreyfus General MMF A as a money-fund sweep option, which features a seven-day yield of 1.90%. Its range for the Insured Deposit Sweep program was from 0.40% to 1.15% at year-end 2018 and from 0.10% to 0.50% in March 2018.
Fidelity occupies the No. 2 spot in the weekly survey. It pays out 0.37% in its lowest tier, but offers 0.79% to accounts over $100,000 invested with the firm in either a Cash Management Account or a Brokerage Account. Shares in three Fidelity money funds offered for sweeps range in yield from 2.04% to 2.08%. Fidelity has not changed its FDIC-insured rates since December, but one year ago they ranged from 0.13% at the low end to 0.27% for the top tiers.
A Deposit Account at UBS was third-ranked with ranges of 0.35% at the lower end to 1.05% for $5 million or more. Those payouts have not changed since Dec. 28; the range in March 2018 was 0.25% to 0.50 percent and they were then the highest to be found in our survey, except for Baird's matching 0.50% at $5 million. Schwab has raised sweep rates since both Dec. 28 and last March and now sits at No. 4 in our survey. Its Bank Sweep Feature produces payouts of 0.33% from accounts of $1 to $999,999 and 0.70% above that level. One year ago, its product offered from 0.12% to a high of 0.30%.
The only other company surveyed showing higher rates now than at year-end was TD Ameritrade, at 0.07% for the smallest accounts to 0.50% at the top end. The range for its FDIC Insured Deposit Acct – Core stood at 0.05% to 0.45% on Dec. 28 and at 0.02% to 0.20% one year ago. Ameriprise reported rates and APYs of 0.70% this week for $5 million or more, up from 0.60% last December. No changes occurred in any lower tiers since then.
The Crane Brokerage Sweep Indexes are now at their highest levels since March 2018. They average 0.25% up to $99,999; 0.31% from $100K to under $250K; 0.39% from $250K to under $500K; 0.44% from $500K to under $1 million; 0.62% from $1M to under $5M; and, 0.75% for invested cash exceeding $5 million. A year earlier, these rates were 0.10%, 0.12%, 0.17%, 0.18%, 0.25%, and 0.33%, respectively.
For more on brokerage sweeps, see these Crane Data News articles: Edward Jones Latest to Shift to FDIC Sweeps; ICI: MMFs Break $3T in '18 (1/31/19), Schwab, Brokerages Discuss Sweeps, Money Funds on Earnings Calls (1/25/19), SF Chronicle on Brokerage Sweeps; Bloomberg on Europe Rejecting RDM (11/28/18), TD Ameritrade, Morgan Stanley on Sweeps; Money Fund Assets Rebound (10/26/18), and Money Fund Yields, Sweep Rates Move Higher; WSJ on Savings, Deposits (10/18/18).
