With just over 2 months to go before our big show, Crane's Money Fund Symposium, which will be held in Boston, June 24-26, we are also preparing for our 7th Annual European Money Fund Symposium, the largest money market event in Europe. The preliminary agenda is now ready and registrations are being taken for this year's European MFS, which will take place Sept. 23-24 at The Hilton Dublin in Dublin, Ireland. We provide more details below, but feel free to contact us for more information. (Note: If you haven't registered yet for the U.S. Money Fund Symposium, you can still do so via www.moneyfundsymposium.com.) We look forward to seeing many of you in Boston this summer, or in Dublin this fall!
Last year's European Crane Symposium event in London attracted 140 attendees, sponsors and speakers -- our largest European event ever. Given the recent implementation of new money fund regulations and structures in Europe and continued "repatriation" of assets back to the U.S., we expect our show in Dublin to attract a similar level of interest this year.
"European Money Fund Symposium offers European, global and "offshore" money market portfolio managers, investors, issuers, dealers and service providers a concentrated and affordable educational experience, and an excellent and informal networking venue," says Crane Data President, Peter Crane. "Our mission is to deliver the best possible conference content at an affordable price to money market fund professionals," he adds.
EMFS will be held at the The Hilton Dublin. Hotel rooms must be booked before Monday, August 21 to receive the discounted rate of E295. Registration for our 2019 Crane's European Money Fund Symposium is $1,000 USD. Visit www.euromfs.com to register, or contact us to request the PDF brochure or for Sponsorship pricing and info.
The EMFS agenda features sessions conducted by many of the leading authorities on money funds in Europe and worldwide. The Day One Agenda for Crane's European Money Fund Symposium includes: "Welcome to European Money Fund Symposium" with Peter Crane of Crane Data; followed by "Money Market Funds in Ireland" with Pat Lardner and Patrick Rooney of Irish Funds; "Euro Money Funds & Continental Issues," with David Callahan of Lombard Odier, Nathalie Dogniez of PwC Luxembourg, and Joe McConnell, from J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
The afternoon will consist of: "Senior Portfolio Manager Perspectives," featuring Neil Hutchison of J.P. Morgan A.M., Dan Farrell of Northern Trust AM, and Jim O’Connor of Dreyfus/BNY Mellon CIS; "IMMFA Update: The State of MMFs in Europe" with Kim Hochfeld of Morgan Stanley I.M. and Jane Lowe of IMMFA; "ESG, Ultra‐Short & Technology Issues" with Andrew Paranthoiene of S&P Global Ratings, Abis Soetan of Fitch Ratings and James Vincent of Goldman Sachs A.M.; "U.K. & Sterling MMF Issues with Paul Mueller of Invesco; and lastly, "Dealer Update & Issuance Outlook" with Marianne Medora of Groupe BPCE/Natixis and Dan Singer of J.P. Morgan Securities.
The Day Two Agenda includes: "European MM Reforms: Finishing Touches" with John Aherne of William Fry and John Hunt of Sullivan & Worcester LLP; a "French & Continental Money Fund Update" with Vanessa Robert of Moody's Investors Service and Alastair Sewell of Fitch Ratings; and, "Strategists Speak: Negative Rates, Markets" with Ruairi Hourihane of Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Giuseppe Maraffino of Barclays.
The second day's afternoon will include: "U.S. Money Fund & European USD Update" with Peter Crane, Deborah Cunningham of Federated Investors and Rob Sabatino of UBS Asset Management; "Chinese Money Funds & Asian Markets" with Andrew Paranthoiene of S&P Global and Alastair Sewell of Fitch Ratings; and, last on the day 2 agenda, "Offshore Money Fund Information" with Peter Crane.
In other news, the Investment Company Institute released its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report late Thursday. It shows that assets fell sharply in the latest week, which included the April 15 tax due date, after rising for two weeks. They write, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $55.32 billion to $3.04 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, April 17, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $48.66 billion and prime funds decreased by $2.42 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $4.24 billion."
ICI's weekly series shows Institutional MMFs falling $42.2 billion and Retail MMFs falling $13.1 billion. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, stood at $2.265 trillion (74.4% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs declined to $644.7 billion (21.2%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $133.2 billion, or 4.4%.
ICI states, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $13.14 billion to $1.20 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $6.06 billion to $694.59 billion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $3.25 billion to $384.30 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $3.83 billion to $123.76 billion." Retail assets account for 39.5% of all assets, and Government Retail assets make up 57.8% of all Retail MMFs.
The release adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $42.18 billion to $1.84 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $42.60 billion to $1.57 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $829 million to $260.40 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $413 million to $9.47 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 60.5% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 85.3% of all Institutional MMF totals.
