U.S. markets are poised to open sharply higher this morning after top government officials from the administration and Congress announced a several actions last night intended fight the mounting financial crisis, according to published reports.
Say government $50 billion backstop makes funds more attractive — and makes it tougher for banks to attract deposits.
“This is a tough environment to launch a new financial product,” said Neel Kashkari, assistant secretary of the Department of the Treasury, but “never has the market needed this financial product as much as we need it now.”
Legg Mason Inc. has entered into agreements to support three money market funds: Citi Institutional Cash Reserves, Western Asset Institutional Money Market Fund and a fund for offshore investors, CILF U.S. Dollar Liquidity Fund.
The Reserve Management Co. Inc. won’t accept new investors in any of its group of money market funds, the firm said yesterday.
Adding to sweeping government actions announced to alleviate the financial crisis, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. this morning proposed new measures aimed at buying bad mortgages and distressed debt.
The move followed the emergency action announced yesterday by the Securities and Exchange Commission temporarily prohibiting short sales of shares of certain financial companies.
The Department of the Treasury announced today that for the next year, it will insure the holdings of any publicly offered eligible money market mutual fund that pays a fee to participate in the program.
Hedge funds and other large investors would have to disclose their short positions under an emergency rule asked for by Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox.
The BNY Mellon’s $22 billion Institutional Cash Reserves fund (ICRF) “broke the buck,” falling in value to $0.991 per share on Sept. 16, Bloomberg reported today.
