The Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve and other regulators are not likely to adopt an emergency liquidity facility funded by fund sponsors to backstop money market funds, according to Gregory Johnson, CEO of Franklin Resources.
“It’s a fairly complex area and [regulators] are looking at other ideas and solutions,” the newly appointed chairman of the Investment Company Institute told Reuters. Likewise, the previous chairman of the ICI, Edward Bernard, vice chairman of T. Rowe Price Group, also recently went on record saying he doesn’t think regulators are moving in the direction of a liquidity facility. The ICI proposed the liquidity facility in January.
One of the biggest concerns for regulators and the industry, Johnson said, is how money market funds could afford to fund the facility at a time of such low interest rates.
Johnson did not comment on whether regulators will revisit the idea of eliminating the $1 net asset value for money funds, only to say, “Everything is on the table” and that a solution is “months away.”
