BOSTON -- The more informed you are, the better. Yet so much information about mutual funds is available, from performance data to legal disclosures, that it's understandable to wonder what you really need to know.
For three weeks, many investors have been able to check out new information that falls into this category. On a fund company's website, they can click on a list of available money-market funds to see daily updates showing tiny changes in the market value of a fund's portfolio.Average investors and institutions use these safe-harbor investments as parking places for cash that's temporarily kept out of stocks or higher-yielding segments of the bond market.On Jan. 9, Goldman Sachs became the first to post daily values of its money funds. More than a half-dozen other companies have followed suit or announced similar plans. They include the largest money fund provider, Fidelity Investments, as well as such names as Federated Investors, BlackRock, JPMorgan and Charles Schwab.There's minimal practical value for average investors to review these numbers. Money funds get relatively little attention because they're low-risk investments, and their portfolios of short-term bonds generate tiny returns even in the best of times.But by voluntarily making these daily disclosures, the money fund industry is doing more than just serving investors. It's trying to convince regulators that it's open to some degree of change, in hope of heading off more far-reaching rules that are under consideration to stabilize money funds."All of a sudden, the industry got religion on transparency," said Peter Crane of money fund researcher Crane Data. "It's throwing a bone to regulators."With its leadership in transition, it's too early to say how the Securities and Exchange Commission will react to the industry's increased openness. But the step could convince regulators that there's no need to require funds to hold loss reserves -- there are none currently -- or that there's no need to set limits on how quickly investors can withdraw cash.Generating even more industry opposition is a proposal that the value of money fund shares floats, rather than be kept at the current fixed $1 per share. Allowing money funds to be priced slightly above or below $1 would reflect the market value of the fund's holdings at a given time.With nearly $2.7 trillion in assets, money funds' crucial role in the financial system became clear during the financial crisis. In September 2008, a large money fund collapsed and investors pulled more than $300 billion from money funds in a matter of days. Short-term credit markets froze and the government rescued money funds by extending temporary guarantees. This created headaches for corporate and local government treasurers, who use cash invested by money fund shareholders to cover short-term needs such as payroll and purchasing.After the crisis, the industry largely embraced new SEC rules to stabilize money funds. But some regulators say additional changes are needed. The industry says proposals such as withdrawal restrictions and floating asset values would make money funds so unattractive that investors would pull out of them altogether.Proposed restrictions backed by former SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro stalled last summer when she couldn't secure backing from a majority of the five-member panel. President Bartack Obama has nominated Mary Jo White to replace Schapiro. The week after Obama's re-election, the Financial Stability Oversight Council urged the SEC to adopt stricter rules, putting pressure on White to act if her appointment is approved.In anticipation, the industry has rolled out the new daily public disclosures on money fund values. They provide far more information than the monthly updates that fund companies began providing to regulators a couple years ago.So far, money funds are making daily disclosures covering more than half of the industry's assets, according to Crane Data. But there are some holdouts. One is Vanguard, which argues that the majority of its money fund investors are individuals, rather than institutions that might have greater interest in frequent disclosures.Daily changes in the values of Vanguard's largest money fund, with $122 billion in assets, have been minimal, a Vanguard spokeswoman said.Indeed, there's been little alarming information from the daily disclosures so far. If that keeps up, it could show that there's no need for tighter money fund rules, says Lance Pan, research director at Capital Advisors Group, which assesses risks for investment clients.The 200-plus funds tracked by Crane Data through Jan. 22 posted net asset values above $1 a share.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
