In a press release sent out Wednesday morning, Federated Investors announced that the Pittsburgh-based company will become the subadviser for several Nationwide Funds. The release says, "Nationwide Mutual Funds has selected Federated to sub-advise three Nationwide money market mutual funds representing approximately $5.6 billion in combined assets, effective April 2, 2009."
It continues, "Federated is providing subadvisory services for the Nationwide Money Market Fund, the NVIT Money Market Fund and the NVIT Money Market Fund II. All three taxable money market funds seek current income consistent with preserving capital by investing in investment-grade fixed-income securities including commercial paper, asset-backed commercial paper and other fixed-income securities issued by U.S. and foreign corporations; U.S. government securities and U.S. government agency securities; obligations of foreign governments; and obligations of U.S. banks, foreign banks and U.S. branches of foreign banks."
The company adds, "With more than 30 years of experience in the money market fund industry, Federated's goal is to preserve principal, maintain liquidity and provide competitive yields. Federated manages money market portfolios with a conservative bias, emphasizing experienced portfolio management and stringent credit research that includes a review of capital structure, liquidity structure, management structure and other key factors before investing in any issuer."
According to Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence XLS, Nationwide ranks 52nd among 89 managers of money market funds. (We show them as managing just $2.5 billion -- $1.98 billion Nationwide MMF Inst (GMIXX) and the $519 million Nationwide MMF Prime (MIFXX). The other funds are variable annuity money market portfolios, which aren't tracked in MFI XLS.)
