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The growing problems in the credit markets, which already have taken a toll on big-money hedge funds and investment banks, are threatening to spill over to a type of investment thought to be among the safest.
Investors think of money-market funds as cash in their brokerage and retirement accounts, but there is growing concern that credit woes may impact the funds.
Those worries grew greater today, after Sentinel Management Group asked the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to help it stop Sentinel's investors from withdrawing their money, according to CNBC. Sentinel doesn't manage money funds for retail investors. Rather, it helps commodity trading firms and hedge funds invest the cash they accumulate in short-term, interest-bearing vehicles, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Money funds, similarly, invest in short-term, high-quality obligations called commercial paper. But in an effort to gain a competitive edge, some companies that run the funds stretch a little further out on the risk spectrum. Though it's not clear yet what securities Sentinel holds, there has been speculation in the market in recent days that some money funds owned short-term paper -- including mortgage-backed securities -- issued by banks with exposure to problems in the subprime-mortgage market.
Sentinel, which oversees about $1.6 billion in assets, has told clients it wants to block redemptions to avoid a forced liquidation, Reuters reported. But the commodity-futures commission told Reuters it has no authority to grant Sentinel's request to halt client redemptions.
"We have no role in whether or not the company does this and whether the client accepts it," said a commission official, who asked not to be identified.
Not protected by FDIC
Many brokers list money-market funds as "cash" on their account statements, but these accounts aren't insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which covers bank deposits.Sentinel is not a mutual fund company, and should not be confused with Sentinel Funds of Vermont, which today posted at its website that it is "in no way affiliated with the Sentinel Management Group (of Illinois)."
A spokesman for the Investment Company Institute said the funds from the Illinois company are not conventional money-market mutual funds. "That is not a money fund," an ICI spokesman said.
Money-market-fund assets totaled $2.538 trillion, about 22.2% of the mutual fund industry's assets under management, as of June 30, according to the ICI.
Money-market funds are priced at $1 per share and pay yields like bonds. No money fund has ever fallen below that price, or "broken the buck," although in one instance more than a decade ago the fund's sponsor had to make up for portfolio shortfalls.
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Spokesmen for Fidelity Investments, Vanguard Group and T. Rowe Price said their firms have no significant exposure to commercial paper backed by subprime mortgages. The Fidelity spokesman said, "Despite increased volatility in credit markets, we're comfortable with the holdings of our funds."
Bruce Bent, the inventor of the money-market fund and chairman of The Reserve, a cash-management investment firm, said the only way investors can be sure they're not exposed to dangerous loans held by money funds "is to call up and ask."
He said the names of so-called conduits, which pass interests in mortgages through to institutional investors, don't necessarily have the word "mortgage" in them.
In general, money funds are required to own paper that will mature within 90 days and, therefore, tend to own only the most secure tranches, or pass-throughs, in credit deals of whatever quality.
"A house would have to sell for less than 40% of the face value of the mortgage for a money fund to get hurt," Bent said. "Everything else is subordinated to them."
The Vanguard spokesman, noting his mutually owned company has the industry's lowest expense ratios, said this "has allowed the fund manager (of Vanguard Prime Money Market) to emphasize higher-quality investments than competitors while still offering a very competitive yield."
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