Brussels, 8th December 2016 - For immediate release
EFAMA welcomes final Money Market Funds deal
Progress achieved since initial European Commission proposal but concerns remain
Brussels, 8th December 2016 - A political agreement reached on the Money Market Fund Regulation was signed-off by the Council of Ministers yesterday in a meeting of EU Ambassadors (COREPER) and this morning by the European Parliaments ECON Committee. These votes followed an original proposal by the European Commission in September 2013.
EFAMA is appreciative of the work done and time spent by EU policymakers, which has resulted in a more workable outcome than the initial proposal, for European investors, MMF managers and the Capital Markets Union more generally.
Peter De Proft, Director General of EFAMA commented: EFAMA members manage both VNAV and CNAV Money Market Funds. From the outset, we have indicated that a proportionate and balanced Regulation which ensures the viability of both CNAV and VNAV MMFs can support alternative sources of financing to the real economy, a key focus of the European Commissions flagship initiative on a Capital Markets Union.
He continued: In terms of CNAV MMFs, we welcome the creation of the LVNAV product which has the possibility of offering investors a real alternative to European CNAV Prime MMFs. Equally important is the retention of a workable government CNAV regime in different currencies. For the VNAV industry, a number of serious operational challenges have been minimised. However, the MMFR is by no means a panacea for either the industry or investors in MMFs.
One noteworthy concern for both sides of the industry are the liquidity calculations of MMFs. EFAMA believes that the lack of a principles-based approach on liquidity will make it difficult to determine whether the arbitrary thresholds set in the final political agreement will be workable in different market scenarios.
EFAMA also regrets the agreements rejection of MMFs being able to operate as funds of funds, an important mechanism used by many VNAV managers for diversification purposes, and points out to some outstanding concerns on how the exemption from the 10% diversification limit of assets in deposits would work.
Finally, there are some practical difficulties with the Know Your Customer requirements and the periodic reviews of the internal credit quality assessments will, in EFAMAs view, not be workable for smaller players on the market.
Peter De Proft concluded: There is no doubt that todays MMFR result is a better outcome than the initial European Commission proposal. However, one cannot ignore the number of question marks on the potential consequences of different parts of the agreement. It remains to be seen whether smaller players will be able to continue operating, given the more elaborate compliance and disclosure requirements, combined with low business margins.
Ends
For media enquiries, please contact:
Peter De Proft,
Director General
Director General
Bernard Delbecque,
Senior Director - Economics and Research
Senior Director - Economics and Research
Notes to editors:
About the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA):
EFAMA is the representative association for the European investment management industry. EFAMA represents through its 28 member associations and 62 corporate members EUR 21 trillion in assets under management of which EUR 12.6 trillion managed by 56,000 investment funds at end 2015. Just over 30,000 of these funds were UCITS (Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities) funds, with the remaining 25,900 funds composed of AIFs (Alternative Investment Funds). For more information about EFAMA, please visit www.efama.org
