Hold On To Your Treasury Securities, Money Market Funds Should Shrug Off U.S. Downgrade
Posted: October 6, 2011 | Author: Ian's Desk | Filed under: credit rating, Money market fund, Standard & Poor's, Treasury, Treasury debt, U S treasury security | Tags: Credit rating, Federal Reserve System, Money market, Money market fund, Mutual fund, Standard & Poors, United States Department of the Treasury, United States Treasury security |Leave a comment »Hold On To Your Treasury Securities, Money Market Funds Should Shrug Off U.S. Downgrade
When Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S. government’s credit rating from AAA to AA+, the $2.5 trillion money market fund industry shuddered in sympathy. Many investors who keep substantial assets in money markets worried about whether their cash was safe.
Not a single fund was forced by its investment policy to dump U.S. treasury holdings, a move that might have put their net asset values under unusual pressure. S&P and the other major credit agencies treat money markets and other relatively short-term obligations separately from debt that takes more than a year to mature. In this case, only the U.S. long-term rating was cut.
As far as money markets are concerned, short-term Treasury debt remains within their top-rated tier. Only a downgrade to A+ on the long-term S&P scale would cause short-term Treasuries to fall out of most high-quality money market portfolios. And for now, at least, even the S&P’s worst-case scenario has the long–term U.S. rating dropping just one more step, to AA (still two notches above A+), during the next two years.
Whether that ever happens or not, the U.S. treasury still carries what money market fund managers consider “minimal” credit risk, which means they can hang on to their Treasury securities.
And so far, most large and small investors are holding on as well.
Copyright 2011 Ian Hurwitz “Hold On To Your Treasury Securities, Money Market Funds Should Shrug Off U.S. Downgrade“
