Money-market funds (Excerpt)
A boom amid the bust--Can the success of money funds last?
THE credit crisis has produced many losers and a few winners. Among money-market mutual funds, which invest in short-term debt and other instruments, it is the other way round. Some funds that exposed themselves to mortgage-linked exotica, albeit indirectly, have had to [---①(phrase) ---] by their managers. But many of the rest have done nicely as worried investors flocked to them, seeking safety.
Long an unexciting province within asset management, money funds have played a big role in the crunch. They bought much of the short-term debt that [---②(phrase) ---] structured finance. It was their sudden withdrawal that caused the market in asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) to seize up. And banks' liquidity problems are largely the result of money funds' recent reluctance to hold their debt.
If this makes them villains, then crime pays. Money funds have been taking market share from banks for years: big banks were less interested in competing for deposits during the [---③(phrase) ---], since they were selling on their loans. The crisis only accelerated this shift, since money funds were seen as one of few havens. In America, the biggest market, their assets have increased by 39% over the past year, to a record $3.5 trillion, even as returns have fallen (see chart).
[--------------------④(sentence)--------------------]By the end of 2007, money funds held a record 31% of corporate America's short-term assets, a share that is thought to have continued rising this year.
Why are companies flocking to outsource their cash management? In the boom, all that mattered to them was [---⑤(word) ---], and they did not need help finding it. Now they crave [---⑥(phrase) ---]—a welcome rediscovery that short-term holdings should “bore you into a good night's sleep”, as Reserve Management's Bruce Bent, creator of the first money fund in 1970, puts it. Money funds, with robust credit departments that do not simply rely on ratings, are better placed than corporate treasurers to provide this.
书香门第
