These are not the only alternatives that may come into play, Gerety and the FSOC say. And they're not alone.
The incoming chairman of the SEC, Elisse Walter, also sees other options as potentially viable. She said so, in fact, at the 2012 Mutual Funds and Investment Management Conference of the ICI in Phoenix, in March. There, the ICI's general counsel, Karrie Macmillan, called the SEC's proposals for money fund reform "outrageous" and encouraged audience applause when she made the charge and repeated it.
Next up on stage was Walter. She chastised the members of the ICI for "unconstructive disengagement" on the issues involved. And she made it clear that floating the net asset value of shares in a fund, capital buffers and limits on redemptions were not the only possible courses of action.
"There are further options still,'' she said. "A simple list includes mandatory redemptions in kind; insurance; private emergency liquidity facilities; funds as special purpose banks; enhanced restraints on unregulated substitutes; revisiting and enhancing the parameters adjusted in our 2010 rules; and, added investor transparency.''
More important, of course, is what she says are the options, after she takes office as chairman of the SEC.
That time arrives Dec. 15.
