Fink Guesses Again on Reforms
After we got a chance to examine the transcript for BlackRock's latest quarterly earnings call, we found only one mention of money market funds. William Katz from Citi asked, "[One] SEC Commissioner came out suggesting that there could be a money market proposal in the next month or so.... [W]hat you are hearing in terms of what it might be and how you might be prepared to react?" Fink answered, "I expect it to be some form of floating NAV. I mean I see no evidence to think it would be anything but a floating NAV on the prime type of funds. I don't believe there will be any form of floating related to the government type of funds. So I think -- I don't -- we don't expect any surprise. We had a whole team in Washington.... [I]t's a pretty dynamic situation but I do believe now with the Commissioner of the SEC and the Chairperson being finalized, I think we are going to see some type of announcement from the SEC shortly." Finally, note that Fink has called for reform proposals and floating NAVs several times in previous conference calls, but he's yet to call it correctly on MMF reforms.
