The Wall Street Journal's CFO Journal writes "Treasurers Worry Over Accounting for Money Fund Changes". It comments, "As Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner moved to reintroduce money market reforms last month, corporate treasurers who invest in the funds are focused on how structural changes might complicate accounting for them. Corporate treasurers are planning for various scenarios, but are getting stumped on accounting issues, Ronni Horillo, assistant treasurer at Google, said on a panel at the Association for Financial Professionals conference in Miami on Monday." They quote Horillo, "There isn't a lot of consensus among the auditors on how they would treat any of these money market changes." The blog adds, "Money market funds trade at a stable, $1-per-share price and are currently grouped in cash and cash equivalents," which lets companies buy and sell them frequently and allows corporate boards to consider them a safe asset in their investment policies. But the Securities and Exchange Commission has been gaining support for an earlier proposal to move money market funds to a floating share price that would reflect underlying changes in the value of their assets.... Companies are hoping money market funds would retain their cash and cash equivalent status if there are changes, and that they would not have to constantly reevaluate the funds for minor gains and losses each time they buy and sell a fund, Jerry Klein, managing director of Treasury Partners, said on the panel." See also, FT's "JPMorgan stems money fund losses", which says, "JPMorgan Chase is to offer clients of its two large euro-denominated money market funds a way to address losses from investing in short-term bonds where interest rates have fallen sharply."
