Money Market Funds and Regulatory Reform by Travis Barker, Outgoing Chairman, Institutional Money Market Funds Association Financial markets continue to be convulsed by the deepest and most pervasive crisis since the Great Depression. The crisis has many underlying causes: lax lending standards; off-balance sheet finance; poorly understood derivatives and structured products; easy credit and exuberant […]
Shadow Banking by Travis Barker, Outgoing Chairman, Institutional Money Market Funds Association Critics of MMFs have described them as ‘shadow banks’, engaged in regulatory arbitrage, and requiring ‘bank-like’ regulation (notably, capital requirements). But what is shadow banking? Is it coherent to think of MMFs as shadow banks? And what is the significance of describing MMFs […]
by Travis Barker, Outgoing Chairman, Institutional Money Market Funds Association Critics of MMFs have argued that MMFs would be less ‘bank-like’ (i.e., not shadow banks) insofar as constant net asset value (CNAV) MMFs converted into variable net asset value (VNAV) MMFs. But what is a CNAV MMF? What are the supposed risks posed by CNAV […]
A Way Forward? by Travis Barker, Outgoing Chairman, Institutional Money Market Funds Association The MMF industry has overwhelmingly rejected regulatory reforms based on the premise that MMFs are shadow banks, or that would require CNAV funds to adopt a VNAV. Instead, the industry has endorsed regulatory reforms that focus on managing liquidity risk. What regulatory […]
