tailieunhanh - TESTIMONY OF PAUL SCHOTT STEVENS PRESIDENT AND CEO INVESTMENT COMPANY INSTITUTE

Another of ICI’s key missions is to promote public understand- ing of funds and their investors. To that end, we stepped up our outreach to the media and the public. Two key develop- ments were the launch of ICI Viewpoints, a forum providing our commentary on key issues as they emerge, and our increased profile in the broadcast media. Through these and other means, we have achieved some success in informing coverage and shaping opinions on key policy questions. This new level of e ort across so many fronts produced tan- gible results. One remarkable development was the passage of the Regulated Investment Company Modernization. | INVESTMENT COMPANY INSTITUTE 1401 H Street NW Washington DC 20005-2148 USA 202 326-5800 Testimony of Paul Schott Stevens President and CEO investment Company institute Before the Committee on Banking housing and urban Affairs united States Senate ON Perspectives on money market mutual fund Reforms June 21 2012 ICI Testimony on Perspectives on Money Market Mutual Fund Reforms June 21 2012 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Money market funds are one of the most significant financial product innovations of the past half century. With trillion in assets money market funds today serve over 57 million retail investors as well as corporations municipalities and other institutional investors as a low-cost efficient cash management tool that provides a high degree of liquidity stability of principal and a market-based yield. They are an important source of direct financing for state and local governments businesses and financial institutions and indirect financing for households. Contrary to the suggestions of critics and some policymakers a careful review of market events demonstrates that money market funds did not accelerate the financial crisis of 2007-2008. Like other market participants money market funds were directly affected by enormous scale and duration of the crisis and by the lack of coherent consistent government policy responses. In contrast to massive failures in the bank sector a single money market fund could not return the full share price to investors after an unprecedented set of failures including that of Lehman Brothers. The events of 2007-2008 are in stark contrast to those of 1994 the only other time a money market fund ever broke a dollar. Even as investors lost confidence in the markets and in government policy during the 2007-2008 financial crisis they remained invested in money market funds shifting their assets from prime money market funds to Treasury and government and agency money market funds. Assets of money market funds achieved an .