First American Funds recently celebrated its 35th Anniversary by posting a 35th Anniversary Video and sending gift boxes to some that included relics from 1982, including Michael Jackson's Thriller album. See their 35th Anniversary release here. The U.S. Bank-affiliated manager also put out a new update entitled, "First American Adjusts Ratings Coverage on Several Funds." It explains, "As part of First American Funds' prudent management of expenses, a decision was made to remove five separate ratings from four of the First American Funds. As a result, First American Funds requested that Standard & Poor's (S&P), Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) and Fitch Ratings (Fitch) remove the following ratings: Institutional Prime Obligations - Fitch AAAmmf rating withdrawn on March 17, 2017, S&P (AAAm) and Moody's (Aaa-mf) remain; US Treasury Money Market - Fitch AAAmmf rating withdrawn on April 20, 2017, S&P (AAAm) and Moody's (Aaa-mf) remain; Retail Prime Obligations - S&P AAAm rating withdrawn on April 13, 2017, Moody's Aaa-mf rating withdrawn on April 28, 2017; Retail Tax Free Obligations - S&P – AAAm rating withdrawn on April 13, 2017." The statement adds, "We believe this level of ratings coverage is consistent with the industry norm and meets or exceeds the needs of our customers for third party oversight by a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization. Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations (NRSRO) evaluate the creditworthiness of organizations that issue debt in public markets including corporations, nonprofit organizations and governments, and provide credit ratings that are used by investors as well as federal and state agencies. Generally, to be considered an NRSRO, the agency has to be “nationally recognized” in the U.S. and provide reliable and credible ratings. Also taken into consideration is the size of the credit rating agency, operational capability and its credit rating process. Three of the largest NRSROs are Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service Inc. and Fitch Ratings. Triple-A Rating is the highest possible rating assigned to the bonds of an issuer by credit rating agencies."
