Fed Delays Purchases of Money Funds’ Short-Term Debt

Money market mutual fund managers holding onto short-term debt they are unable to unload into the market will have to continue to hold on tight, because the Federal Reserve is not going to extend its $540 billion in loans to purchase the paper through the Money Market Investor Funding Facility until next month.

The buying program will not be ready until Nov. 24, the Fed said, explaining that it is busy with other bailouts, as well as trying to figure out how to implement the money fund program.

As it is structured now, any money market mutual fund that sells debt to the facility would share the losses of any failing institution, even if they themselves did not purchase the paper of an issuer than ended up collapsing.

Two other federal programs already in place to help money market funds have bought $200 billion in commercial paper from the funds, as well as $90 billion in asset-backed commercial paper.