Role of MMFs in Shadow Banking
The Canada-based Centre for Research on Globalization published a strange, poorly-written and ill-informed paper called "Central Banks Lend Massively to the Shadow Banking Sector: The Role of "Money Market Funds." Eric Toussaint writes, "Money Market Funds (MMFs) are financial corporations in the United States and Europe, rarely controlled and little subject to regulations as they act without banking licences. They are closely akin to shadow banking. Supposedly the MMFs act with prudence but the reality is very different. This is cause for great concern given the vast quantities of money they handle, and the sharp drop in their profitability since 2008. In the United States, they managed $2.7 trillion in 2012, a significant drop from the $3.8 trillion in 2008. As investment funds the MMFs collect capital from investors (banks, pension funds, etc.) and use it to make short-term, often day to day, loans to banks and businesses. During the 2000s MMF financing has become an essential short-term source of liquidities for banks. The biggest are Prime Money Market Fund, Created by JP Morgan, the biggest bank in the United States, is worth $115 billion. Wells Fargo the 4th largest bank in the United States has an MMF managing $24 billion. Goldman Sachs the 5th biggest bank controls an MMF worth $25 billion. US banks also operate MMFs in Europe; JP Morgan (E18 billion euros), BlackRock (E11.5 billion), Goldman Sachs (E10 billion), alongside European banks such as BNP Paribas (E7.4 billion), and Deutsche Bank (E11.3 billion). Some MMFs also operate in British pounds. Michel Barnier (European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services) has announced that he would like regulations to be imposed on this activity, but this is most likely to remain nothing more than a statement of good intentions." In other news, a Canadian press release entitled, "Stone Asset Management Limited to Terminate Money Market Fund, says, "Stone Asset Management Limited today announced plans to terminate the Stone & Co. Flagship Money Market Fund Canada. Effective September 5, 2014 units of the Fund will no longer be available for purchase and will be terminated on or about November 7, 2014."
