ICI Fund Conferences Approaching
The Investment Company Institute is preparing to host several conferences in the coming weeks. Though none of the events have money funds on their agendas, all will discuss issues involving financial stability, SIFIs, and bond market risk (and attendees will no doubt be discussing MMFs). ICI will host its forum for lawyers and accountants, the 2015 Mutual Funds and Investment Management Conference March 15-18 in Palm Desert, Calif., and its 2015 General Membership Meeting May 6-8 in Washington. The Institute will also host a special "Conference on Financial Stability and Asset Management" next Wednesday, March 11 in Boston. (The Irish Fund Industry Association has its "Boston Road Show" that same day too.) A release on the ICI's event next week says, "Academics, former regulators and asset management leaders will convene in Boston -- birthplace of the first U.S. mutual fund -- to discuss and debate the modern-day public policy issue of asset management and financial stability regulation. The Boston University (BU) Center for Finance, Law & Policy and the Investment Company Institute (ICI) are cosponsoring the Conference on Financial Stability and Asset Management on March 11 on BU's campus. The conference will explore the mandate of U.S. and global regulators to examine and potentially designate nonbanks -- including asset managers -- as "systemically important financial institutions" (SIFI), and the consequences of such designations and "prudential regulation" for funds, capital markets, and investors. SEC Commissioner Daniel M. Gallagher and Sir Paul Tucker, Former Deputy Governor Bank of England, will debate the differences between capital markets and banking, including the two areas' respective economic roles and regulation. Cornelius K. Hurley, Director of BU's Center for Finance, Law & Policy, will give opening and closing remarks. ICI Chief Economist Brian Reid will start the day’s discussion with an overview of the asset management industry." Click here for the full agenda and click here to register. (The fee is $150 per person.) The SEC's Gallagher was cited in a story by Bloomberg, "Corporate Bond Market Poses Systemic Risk, Says SEC's Gallagher." The lead says, "A lack of liquidity in corporate-bond markets could pose a "systemic risk" to the economy when interest rates rise, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission member Daniel Gallagher said." In other news, the Financial Times wrote, "European Money Market Fund Reforms Likened to 'Hand Grenade'." It says, "Long-awaited reforms proposed for Europe's E1tn money market fund sector have left both the industry and its most visceral opponents equally unhappy.... E1tn is a significant chunk of the short-term debt market in Europe and this is like throwing a hand grenade into it. It is not pretty," one industry figure told FT. "There are piles of garbage in [the proposals]. We had hoped for something much, much better."
