Money Market Fund Resource Center

During their history of 30-plus years, money market funds have emerged as a steady, predictable mainstay of finance, a preferred vehicle of cash management for individuals, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies.

Since the financial turmoil of 2008, regulators and the fund industry have made great progress toward their shared goal of making money market funds more resilient under extreme market conditions. ICI convened a Money Market Working Group, and in March 2009, ICI’s Board of Governors unanimously endorsed recommendations contained in the Report of the Money Market Working Group. In January 2010, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved amendments to the rule governing money market funds.

ICI and the Independent Directors Council filed comments with the SEC on January 10, 2011, in response to the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets Report on Money Market Reform Options. In its extensive comments, ICI stated that a private emergency liquidity facility for prime money market funds has the most promise for addressing concerns about funds’ ability to cope with adverse market conditions. The letter outlines how such a facility could be created, governed, and operated. ICI's letter strongly rejects other reform options that could change the fundamental nature of money market funds, particularly proposals that would directly or indirectly force these funds to abandon the stable $1.00 per-share net asset value (NAV).

In light of disclosures likely to increase investors’ awareness of money market funds’ portfolios and pricing, a new research report by ICI, Pricing of U.S. Money Market Funds, conducts economic analysis and examines historical data on funds’ per-share market value, known as the “shadow price.”

ICI will update this page as reform efforts impacting money market funds unfold. A related resource page provides more detailed background on ICI’s Money Market Working Group.