OnWallStreet on UBS Sweep Changes
Website OnWallStreet writes, "UBS cash sweep changes lead to $5.6B in money market fund outflows," which tells us, "After UBS altered sweep account policies Monday, two money market funds that had been available in the company's cash program reported net outflows of $5.6 billion.... [S]ome clients are no longer eligible to purchase shares of these funds, according to supplements to the funds' prospectuses. In addition, many clients are no longer able to withdraw balances from their bank deposit sweep accounts to purchase shares." (See the "Note" in Wednesday's MFI Daily and see the end of our Tuesday News (11/19), "SEC Q1'19 Private Fund Stats Show Drop to $573 Billion; Sweeps Lower.") OnWallStreet's piece continues, "The sweep account changes at UBS mirror those made at other brokerages, including LPL Financial and Charles Schwab, which have taken steps in recent years to remove money market funds as a sweep account option. Merrill Edge, meanwhile, is facing a lawsuit from a disgruntled client who claims she has missed out on over $20,000 in returns after she was recommended to keep her cash in low-yield account." The article quotes our Pete Crane, "Like a lot of brokerages have been doing, [UBS] is just squeezing the last pockets of money fund assets out.... We thought all the sweep money was already out of money funds and into bank deposits, but clearly there are some [billion-dollar] pockets remaining." Finally, they comment, "It is unclear whether [UBS's] client money was invested in other funds or swept into the wirehouse's bank account program. These money market fund policy changes come after rates have fallen for both bank interest rates and money market returns, which Crane attributes to the third Fed rate cut at the end of October. Firms including Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and Raymond James -- which have tiered interest rates based on account value -- have cut rates since the Fed's decision."
