EUROPE: ESMA Consults on the Framework for EU Money Market Funds

Friday March 26 2021

On 26^th March 2021, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), launched a consultation on potential reforms of the EU Money Market Funds Regulation (MMFR). ESMA aims to review the stress experienced by MMFs during the March 2020 crisis and assess the roles played by markets, investors and regulation, and proposes potential reforms.

Proposed MMF reforms

ESMA sets out four types of potential reforms for MMFs:

• Reforms targeting the liability side of MMFs – such as decoupling regulatory thresholds from suspensions/gates to limit liquidity stress, and to require MMF managers to use liquidity management tools such as swing pricing;
• Reforms targeting the asset side of MMFs by e.g. reviewing requirements around liquidity buffers and their use;
• Reforms targeting both the liability and asset side of MMFs by reviewing the status of certain types of MMFs such as stable Net Asset Value (NAV) MMFs and Low Volatility Net Asset Value (LVNAV); and
• Reforms that are external to MMFs themselves by assessing whether the role of sponsor support should be modified. In addition, ESMA is also gathering feedback from stakeholders on other potential changes, particularly linked to ratings, disclosure and stress testing.

Next Steps

ESMA will consider the feedback it received to this consultation in Q2 2021 and expects to publish its opinion on the review of the MMF Regulation in the second half of 2021.

Article 46 of the MMF Regulation (MMFR), requires the EC to review, following consultations with ESMA, the adequacy of the MMFR from a prudential and economic point of view by 21 July 2022.

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