ICI Viewpoints Content

U.S. money market funds are one of the most transparent financial products on the planet.

The regulators who are campaigning for structural changes in money market funds are building their case in part on distortions, exaggerations, and misunderstandings about money market funds, their investors, and their role in the financial markets.

Bad information can’t give rise to good policy. Unfortunately, the regulators who are campaigning for structural changes in money market funds are building their case on information that is deeply flawed at best.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has finally delivered on Chairman Mary Schapiro’s June promise to give Congress data to back up her claim that money market fund sponsors “have voluntarily provided support to money market funds on more than 300 occasions.”

The fund industry strongly supports effective public disclosure to ensure that retail and institutional investors can get the information they need to make sound investments. For disclosure to be effective, however, it has to align with marketplace realities.

The U.S. Treasury Department has made significant progress with its July 26 release of a model intergovernmental agreement (IGA) for implementing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). This model IGA—developed with the active cooperation of senior tax officials from France...

We were disappointed to see how Gillian Tett’s recent Financial Times column (“The Achilles Heel of America’s Financial System”) mischaracterized the role of U.S. money market funds, the dramatic improvements resulting from the 2010 regulatory reforms, and the debate over further...

When and how do households take withdrawals from their traditional individual retirement accounts (IRAs)? Shedding light on these questions is the goal of the latest installment of our IRA Investor Profile series, an ICI Research undertaking that analyzes account-level data of more...

In recent years, the discussion around money market funds has been as intense as it has been varied. Regulators have contemplated a wide range of reform proposals, in turn inspiring scores of citizens, organizations, businesses, and government officials to weigh in and share their...

Given money market funds’ critical role in the economy and markets, the policy discussion around these funds should be precise and should demonstrate a clear understanding of the facts.