Bond Mutual Funds Content

December 4, 2023—Halloween season is well past, but some banking authorities seem happy to continue chasing the perceived “ghoul” of bond fund stress amplification. In trying to make the case that bond funds amplify market shocks, systemic risk regulators have for years twisted and...

Policymakers are laser-focused on a concept in open-ended funds called dilution, suggesting that it poses financial stability risks. In a nutshell, dilution occurs when fund shareholders redeem and the transaction costs of meeting those redemptions—such as bid-ask spreads or the...

Demand for lower-cost investment products, competition among the vast number of available funds, and economies of scale have driven down average expense ratios industrywide over the past quarter century. With average expense ratios declining again in 2022, investors will continue to...

Core bond mutual funds’ activities during March 2020 had little impact on the investment grade corporate bond market. According to an ICI study, the timing and small size of core bond mutual funds’ daily net sales of investment grade corporate bonds is inconsistent with some...

Bond mutual funds’ activities during March 2020 had little impact on the investment grade corporate bond market. According to an ICI study, core bond mutual funds, on net, sold only $8 billion of their $780 billion in holdings of investment grade corporate bonds in the first three...

US residents that invest in mutual funds. ICI survey data on the daily activities of bond mutual funds during March 2020 indicate that this assertion does is incorrect. Our survey data—by far and away the most detailed data brought to bear on this narrative—show that the Treasury...

When analyzing the complex and unprecedented market activity of March 2020, it is vital to use comprehensive and accurate data to understand bond mutual funds’ transactions in the Treasury market. Using figures published by the Federal Reserve, commentators have argued that mutual...

New ICI research provides a detailed picture of bond mutual funds’ role in the fixed-income markets during March 2020. ICI urges regulators to use this information when considering policies to enhance the resilience of markets. Otherwise, policies based on inaccurate data or inapt...