The call for further money market mutual fund reforms still rings out, but will it drive more players out of the business?

Last week, the President's Working Group on Financial Markets released a report on various regulatory options (without endorsing any) (see The MFWire, 10/22/2010), and now the Wall Street Journal's Eleanor Laise worries that more reform will shrink the industry into the hands of even fewer players. The WSJ also points to an International Monetary Fund report from September, calling for floating NAVs for money funds.

Roger Merritt, managing director at Fitch Ratings, told the WSJ that he thinks more reforms may "change the structure and economics of money market funds in such a way that they're just not an attractive product for the fund sponsors."

The WSJ cites Moody's data noting that the 20 biggest money fund managers already have 92 percent of money fund assets (compared with 82 percent less than four years ago).

Several other insiders weighed in for the story, including: Henry Shilling, senior vice president at Moody's Investors Service; Karrie McMillan, general counsel for the ICI; and Joan Ohlbaum Swirsky, of counsel at Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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