Press Releases Archives: May, 2007

Crane Data Online MM Portal Survey Estimates Market at $230 Billion. Money Fund Intelligence recently surveyed its readership of money market mutual fund managers and marketers, and money market issuers, servicers and investors on the topic of online money market trading portals. The preliminary results will be presented at today's 4pm New York Cash Exchange in a session entitled, "Cash Supermarket Shopping: Comparing Online Money Market Trading Portals". Survey respondents estimate that 16%, or $230 billion, of institutional money market fund assets are distributed via "portals" and that BNY's MoneyFundsDirect, Mellon LMS and SunGard STN are the three largest players. Peter Crane will host a discussion featuring portal experts Marianne Bamonte from LaSalle MoneyMarkets Express, Paul Rice from Treasury Curve, and Elyse Wiener from Citibank Online Investments. The full survey results will be featured in upcoming June issue of Money Fund Intelligence.

"SEC Seen Unlikely to Rein in Money Fund Business": Investment News. While apparently confused between money market mutual funds and brokerage-affiliated FDIC-insured money market deposit accounts, this week's Investment News article does get a general theme of last week's Reserve Cash Summit correct -- that regulators likely won't move into "bankerage" with a heavy hand. Recently proposed "Broker Financial Reponsibility" rules, if adopted, will require much more onerous disclosure from brokerages, but will not ban the practice of paying low interest rates on "bankerage" sweep cash, as some have speculated. Contrary to the IN article's title, there are currently no discussions to "rein in" money market mutual funds. Quite the contrary, current proposals should only add fuel to money funds' surging asset levels.

Learn from Money Fund Masters at New York Cash Exchange Workshop. Next week's New York Cash Exchange includes a Friday morning workshop, hosted by Crane Data's Peter Crane, entitled, "Money Market & Cash Investing Pointers: Strategies from the Money Fund Masters". The session will feature three senior money fund portfolio managers -- Deutsche Asset Management's Geoffrey Gibbs, Morgan Stanley Asset Management's Jonas Kolk, and The Reserve's Patrick Ledford -- discussing tips and tactics for managing money market securities, such as commercial paper, asset-backed CP (ABCP), and more esoteric securities like extendible commercial notes (ECNs).

Financial Week's "Rising Money-Fund Risks Raise Specter of Default", subtitled, "Growth in assets and yield-hungry CFOs lead money managers to invest in everything from credit card debt to auto loans", discusses growing risks in money market mutual funds. The article cites a Moody's seminar and survey where 47% of respondents thought money funds had gotten riskier (up from 39% in 2005). It also discusses the growing complexity of structured securities (quoting Peter Crane among others). Henry Shilling, senior VP at Moody's, said, "Quite frankly, not all of them [146 money fund complexes] have the resources that are required given the new reality associated with the type of securities they're buying."

"Dreyfus's Larkin Times the Money Market to Beat Her Fund Rivals". Bloomberg Markets features a "profile" on Dreyfus Institutional Cash Advantage Fund and Patricia Larkin. "As interest rates approached a record low in 2002, Dreyfus Corp.'s Patricia Larkin found a way to beat most of her 120 competitors by setting up a money-market mutual fund to profit from Federal Reserve increases," says the article, which also cites Crane Data indexes and performance.

Crane Data LLC and Money Fund Intelligence Celebrate Their 1st Birthday. The May issue of Money Fund Intelligence marks the 1-year anniversary of the founding of Crane Data LLC and the first issue of MFI. We launched our company with the mission of faster, cheaper, cleaner money market and mutual fund information, and we continue to pursue this goal relentlessly. We'd like to thank all our early supporters, subscribers, reporters, and contributors. We look forward to many more years of serving the money markets! Please do not hesitate to contact us with any comments, questions, or requests. Sincerely, Peter G. Crane.

"Money Market Funds Make a Quiet Comeback" Says Currier in IHT Article Today's International Herald Tribune and Boston Globe feature a money fund piece by Chet Currier of Bloomberg News, calling money market funds as a "hot property". Money funds, he says, have "been piling up the assets lately at an impressive pace, although with far less accompanying hype" than investments such as hedge funds and ETFs. They've grown by almost $600 billion, or 33 percent, in less than two years, as events have "enhanced their appeal on both sides of the risk-reward calculation". While PIMCO's Bill Gross warns of falling rates, the non-fringe consensus looks for yields to remain around 5.0%. The article cites our Crane 100 Money Fund Index, currently at 4.98%.