WSJ: China Unhappy w/MMF Coverage
The Wall Street Journal again writes about Chinese money funds and Yu'e Bao again in the new piece, "China Wants Raters to Keep Quiet on Money-Market Fund Sizes." They explain, "A Chinese quasi-regulator told the country's top raters of investment funds to stop publicizing the sizes of money-market mutual funds, in what is being seen as another attempt by Beijing to slow the industry's rapid pace of asset accumulation. The Asset Management Association of China, an industry group supervised by China's securities regulator, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, earlier this month held a meeting with about a dozen representatives from brokerage firms, fund-rating companies and several state-owned newspapers focusing on the securities industry. They were advised to de-emphasize their coverage of money-market mutual funds, according to an attendee." The article adds, "A copy of an internal directive reviewed by The Wall Street Journal told firms that rate and rank investment funds to avoid publishing the asset sizes for money-market funds, which could have the effect of drawing more investors to the largest funds.... Chinese regulators have grown concerned about potential risks from the country's swelling money-market mutual fund industry, whose total assets have surged 54% this year to nearly $1 trillion at the end of September. Many investors have been drawn to the funds's generous yields, which in some cases are close to 4% on an annualized basis.... In October, China’s securities regulator imposed stricter liquidity requirements on funds and deemed some large-scale money-market funds to be "systemically significant." It has also slowed down its approval of new funds. Since October, no new money-market fund has been launched, versus 22 in the third quarter, and 39 in the fourth quarter a year ago, according to data from Wind Information Co."
