The January 2009 issue of Crane Data's flagship newsletter Money Fund Intelligence, which was released yesterday, features our year-in-review recap, "Money Funds Rule Kingdom of Blind in '08", our monthly fund profile, "Fidelity's Morrison on Money Market Funds," and an article on our latest rankings, "Top-Performing Money Market Funds for 2008." Look for excerpts from these articles and rankings in coming days on the website.
In other news, we're told that the SEC will not extend its no-action letter that allowed money funds to "shadow price" using amortized cost. (See our News from Oct. 13, 2008, "SEC Allows Amortized Cost "Shadow Pricing" for Money Market Funds.") ICI told members in a memo, "Based on current market conditions, the SEC staff has determined not to extend that relief, which will expire on Monday, January 12, 2009."
Money funds should then return to "mark-to-market" shadow pricing for all securities. This shouldn't be an issues since the Fed's rate cuts and support actions have made most money markets relatively liquid once more. The SEC's earlier letter said, "Rule 2a-7 ... requires money market funds to adopt written procedures (monitoring procedures) requiring the fund to periodically calculate 'the extent of deviation, if any, of the current net asset value per share calculated using available market quotations (or an appropriate substitute that reflects current market conditions) from the money market fund's amortized cost price per share.' This process is referred to in the rule as 'shadow pricing'."
Elsewhere, Standard & Poor's rated Pacific Capital Cash Assets Trust 'AAAm'. Pacific Capital is advised by a subsidiary of the Bank of Hawaii. Also, `S&P withdrew ratings on RidgeWorth U.S. Govt Securities Ultra Short Bond Fund.
Finally, Federated Investors announced that it will report its year-end results on Thursday, Jan. 22. A conference call will be held on Friday, Jan. 23, 2009, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern. (See also Debbie Cunningham's most recent comments.)
