Dreyfus Inst Pref Govt Plus Rated AAA
"Fitch Rates Dreyfus Institutional Preferred Government Plus Money Market Fund 'AAAmmf'" says a new press release. It tells us, "Fitch Ratings has assigned an 'AAAmmf' rating to the Dreyfus Institutional Preferred Government Plus Money Market Fund. The fund is a Rule 2a-7 registered government money market fund (MMF) managed by BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. (BNY Mellon).... The rating reflects Fitch's review of the fund's investment and credit guidelines, credit quality and diversification, liquidity profile, as well as the capabilities of BNY Mellon to manage the fund. The 'AAAmmf' rating assigned to the fund indicates an extremely strong capacity to achieve the investment objective of preserving principal and providing liquidity through limiting credit, market and liquidity risk." Fitch explains, "The fund invests solely in fixed and floating rate government securities, repurchase agreements collateralized by government securities, and cash. Specifically, government securities include obligations issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. government or by its agencies or instrumentalities." They add, "The Negative Rating Outlook assigned to the United States and to U.S. government sponsored entities does not have a direct impact on the fund's rating, nor would a hypothetical downgrade of U.S. government and agency debt to 'AA+', assuming no changes to the current portfolio. This is due to the fact that 'AA+'-rated investments are still viewed as supportive of a 'AAAmmf' rating, provided all other maturity, duration, diversification and liquidity guidelines outlined in Fitch's MMF rating criteria are satisfied. That said, in the event that a downgrade of the U.S. rating had material impacts on the fund's asset liquidity and/or ability to meet redemptions, these could adversely impact Fitch's rating analysis.... The fund seeks to limit interest rate and spread risk by maintaining a weighted average maturity and a weighted average life below 60 days and 120 days, respectively, consistent with Fitch's 'AAAmmf' criteria.... The fund seeks to maintain sufficient levels of daily and weekly liquidity to meet investors' redemption requests. Specifically, the pool invests at least 10% of total assets in securities offering daily liquidity and at least 30% of total assets in securities providing weekly liquidity. As of the review date, the fund met the liquidity requirements mandated by Rule 2a-7 and were in line with the liquidity guidelines outlined in Fitch's 'AAAmmf' rating criteria."
