Policy Research Content

A version of this letter by ICI Chief Economist Sean Collins was released in the Institute’s 61st edition of the Investment Company Fact Book. 2020. What a year. I’m writing this letter sitting in my basement, which has served as my office this past year. It’s March 15, 2021, almost...

Even as the market turmoil triggered by strict government mandates and social distancing due to the COVID-19 health crisis raged in March 2020, ICI started studying how registered funds weathered the crisis. As the dust settled, we quickly identified a key factor that exacerbated...

New analysis by ICI shows that prime money market funds did not pull back significantly from the commercial paper market during the height of the market turmoil and “dash for cash” triggered by the COVID-19 health crisis in March 2020.

The evidence about what happened to financial markets in March 2020 is still far too mixed and preliminary to conclude that new regulation is appropriate for bond mutual funds.

In the past decade, a number of regulators and academics have discussed concerns about the growth in the assets of bond mutual funds, as well as their increasing share of the bond market, especially the corporate bond market. 1 The concern is that bond fund investors, now playing a...

Why have bond mutual funds grown substantially in the past several years? There are two possible explanations, with very different implications.

Policymakers around the globe are studying the turmoil in March 2020 related to the COVID-19 pandemic to determine what happened and why. Similar work is being done by academics and other analysts. Bond mutual funds have been one area of focus, and policymakers will be considering the...

For the 2020 Annual Report to Members, three members of ICI’s leadership sat down to share their thoughts on how the Institute and the fund industry have navigated the COVID-19 crisis.

Paul Schott Stevens, ICI’s longest-serving chief executive, retired at the end of 2020. As he neared the end of his 16 years of service, he sat down with ICI staff to discuss the events of his tenure.

2020 will go down in history as a year that none of us can ever forget. It was a year of turmoil, fear, and reckoning. Yet for the regulated fund industry, it also proved to be a year of resilience, transition, and great hope. Read more from ICI Chairman George C. W. Gatch's letter...