UNITED STATES: SEC Proposes Amendments to Money Market Fund Rules

Thursday December 16 2021

On 15^th December 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission voted to propose amendments to certain rules that govern money market funds under the Investment Company Act of 1940. In March 2020, growing economic concerns about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic led investors to reallocate their assets into cash and short-term government securities. Prime and tax-exempt money market funds, particularly institutional funds, experienced large outflows, which contributed to stress on short-term funding markets. The Commission’s proposed amendments are designed, in part, to address concerns about prime and tax-exempt money market funds highlighted by these events.

The proposed amendments are designed to improve the resilience and transparency of money market funds. The proposal would remove the liquidity fee and redemption gate provisions in the existing rule, which would eliminate an incentive for preemptive redemptions from certain money market funds and could encourage funds to more effectively use their existing liquidity buffers in times of stress.

The proposal would also require institutional prime and institutional tax-exempt money market funds to implement swing pricing policies and procedures to require redeeming investors to bear the liquidity costs of their decisions to redeem.

The Commission is also proposing to increase the daily liquid asset and weekly liquid asset minimum liquidity requirements, to 25% and 50% respectively, to provide a more substantial buffer in the event of rapid redemptions.

The proposal would amend certain reporting requirements on Forms N-MFP and N-CR to improve the availability of information about money market funds, as well as make certain conforming changes to Form N-1A to reflect our proposed changes to the regulatory framework for these funds. In addition, the Commission is proposing rule amendments to address how money market funds with stable net asset values should handle a negative interest rate environment.

Finally, the Commission is proposing rule amendments to specify how funds must calculate weighted average maturity and weighted average life.

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