While we still hope to hold our flagship Money Fund Symposium in Minneapolis later this year (Oct. 26-28, 2020), we're officially cancelling our European Money Fund Symposium, which was scheduled for Nov. 19-20, 2020 in Paris, France. (We'll likely hold a slimmed-down, virtual European MFS on Nov. 19.) Crane Data continues to monitor travel restrictions and will give full refunds or credits for any events that are cancelled or that registered attendees can't make it to, and we continue to ramp up our virtual event capabilities. We review our latest events below. (Join us at 1pm Wednesday (7/22) for our next online event, "Crane's Money Fund Webinar: Portfolio Manager Perspectives," which will feature Peter Crane hosting a panel including Federated Hermes' Sue Hill, Northern Trust Asset Management's Peter Yi and UBS Asset Management's David Walczak.)
We're sorry to have to cancel, but given the restrictions on international travel, we didn't think our European event had much of a chance 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,. Our mission for EMFS, and all our events, is to deliver the best possible conference content at an affordable price to money market fund professionals. Our 2019 European Crane Symposium event in Dublin attracted 110 attendees, sponsors and speakers, and we hope to be back and even bigger in Paris in 2021. Watch for details in coming months on our Nov. 19 virtual event, and mark your calendars for next year's European MFS, scheduled for Oct. 20-21, 2021 in Paris.
As we told Sponsors and Speakers last month, we also shifted back the dates of our annual Money Fund Symposium conference due to the coronavirus pandemic and continued travel restrictions. Crane's Money Fund Symposium is now scheduled for October 26-28, 2020 at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis, but we'll be prepared to cancel and to host a virtual event if the pandemic persists. In the meantime, our planning goes on. The latest agenda is available and registrations are still being taken at: www.moneyfundsymposium.com. (Registrations for our earlier June and August dates have been transferred to the October dates, and earlier hotel reservations were cancelled if you registered through us.)
Our MF Symposium Agenda is, for now, scheduled to kick off on Monday, October 26 with a keynote on "Money Funds through the Decades" from Paul Schott Stevens of the Investment Company Institute. The rest of the Day 1 agenda includes: "Treasury Issuance & Repo Update," with Mark Cabana of Bank of America, Dina Marchioni of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Tom Katzenbach of the U.S. Department of the Treasury; a "Corporate Investor, Portal & ESG MMF Discussion" with Tom Callahan of BlackRock, Tom Hunt of AFP, and Mark Adamson of Wells Fargo Securities; and, a "Major Money Fund Issues 2020" panel with Tracy Hopkins of Dreyfus/BNY Mellon Cash Investment Strategies, Jeff Weaver of Wells Fargo Asset Management and Peter Yi of Northern Trust Asset Management. (The evening's reception is sponsored by BofA Securities.)
Day 2 of Money Fund Symposium 2020 will begin with "The State of the Money Fund Industry," which features Peter Crane, Deborah Cunningham of Federated Investors and Michael Morin of Fidelity Investments, followed by a "Senior Portfolio Manager Perspectives" panel, including Linda Klingman of Charles Schwab I.M., Nafis Smith of Vanguard and John Tobin of J.P. Morgan Asset Mgmt. Next up is "Government & Treasury Money Fund Issues," with moderator, Joseph Abate of Barclays, Mike Bird of Wells Fargo Funds and Geoff Gibbs of DWS. The morning concludes with a "Muni & Tax Exempt Money Fund Update," featuring Colleen Meehan of Dreyfus, John Vetter of Fidelity and Sean Saroya of J.P. Morgan Securities.
The Afternoon of Day 2 (after a Dreyfus-sponsored lunch) features the segments: "Dealer's Choice: Supply, New Securities & CP" with moderator, Jeff Plotnik of U.S. Bancorp Asset Mgmt., Rob Crowe of Citi Global Markets, John Kodweis of JPM and Stewart Cutler of Barclays; "Ratings Focus: Governance, Global & LGIPs" with Robert Callagy of Moody's Investors Service, Greg Fayvilevich of Fitch Ratings and Michael Masih of S&P Global Ratings; "Ultra-Short, ETFs & Alt-Cash Update," with Alex Roever of J.P. Morgan Securities and Laurie Brignac of Invesco. The day's wrap-up presentation is "Brokerage Sweeps, Bank Deposits & Fin-Tech" involving Chris Melin of Ameriprise Financial and Kevin Bannerton of Total Bank Solutions. (The Day 2 reception is sponsored by Barclays.)
The third day of the Symposium features the sessions: "Strategists Speak '20: Fed Rates, Repo & SOFR" with Priya Misra of TD Securities and Garret Sloan of Wells Fargo Securities; "Regulatory & Misc. Issues: ESG, ETF, European," with Brenden Carroll of Dechert LLP, Rob Sabatino of UBS Asset Mgmt and Jonathan Curry of HSBC Global A.M.; "FICC Repo & Agency Roundtable," with Owen Nichols of State Street and Kyle Lynch of FHLBanks Office of Finance and, "Money Fund Statistics & Disclosures" with Peter Crane.
Visit the MF Symposium website at www.moneyfundsymposium.com for more details. Registration is $750, and discounted hotel reservations are available. We hope it'll be safe to travel and you'll join us in Minneapolis this October! When and if you're ready, attendees, speakers and sponsors should register here and make hotel reservations here. We'll keep you posted on our plans, so watch for updates in coming months. E-mail us at info@cranedata.com to request the full brochure, or click here to see the latest.
Finally, mark your calendars for next year's Money Fund University, which is scheduled for Jan. 21-22, 2021, in Pittsburgh, Pa, and our next Bond Fund Symposium, which is scheduled for March 25-26, 2021 in Newport Beach, Calif. Watch for details in coming months, and let us know if you're interested in sponsoring or speaking. (No hurry of course; we'll see how travel develops in coming months.) Contact us if you have any feedback or questions. Attendees to Crane Conferences and Crane Data subscribers may access the latest recordings, Powerpoints and binder materials at the bottom of our "Content page." Let us know if you'd like more details on any of our events, and we hope to see you in Minneapolis later this fall or at some point in 2021!
In other "offshore" money fund news, a press release entitled, "Moody's assigns Aaa-mf rating to LGIM Euro Liquidity Fund" tells us, "Moody's Investors Service ('Moody's) has assigned a Aaa-mf to LGIM Euro Liquidity Fund (the 'Fund'), a Low Volatility Net Asset Value (LVNAV) money market fund, domiciled in Ireland and managed by Legal & General Investment Management Limited (LGIM). The Fund's primary investment objective is to achieve a return in line with money market rates while preserving capital and providing daily liquidity. The Aaa-mf rating reflects Moody's view that the Fund has a very strong ability to meet its objectives of providing liquidity and preserving capital."
It continues, "The Fund invests in high credit quality securities, primarily short-dated commercial paper and deposit securities as well as short-dated bonds from government, agency, corporate and financial issuers. The Fund's weighted average maturity (WAM) is below 60 days. The Fund maintains a strong liquidity profile supported by high levels of overnight and weekly liquidity in the portfolio, in excess of regulatory requirements."
Moody's adds, "The Fund’s exposure to market risk is low, supported by the high credit quality of the fund's investment portfolio, strong liquidity and relatively short WAM. Moody's expects the Fund's adjusted NAV score to be '1' or '2' in Moody's money market fund rating scorecard. LGIM is an investment manager with GBP1.2 trillion assets under management, out of which GBP51.6 billion in the liquidity management, as of December 2019."
