U.S. regulators are poised to complete long-awaited rules intended to prevent a repeat of the investor stampede out of money-market mutual funds that threatened to freeze corporate lending during the 2008 financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to vote on a plan as early as this month that would require certain money funds catering to large, institutional investors to abandon their fixed $1 share price and float in value like other mutual funds. The plan also would allow money funds to temporarily block investors from withdrawing their money in times of stress, or require a fee to redeem shares. Other regulators, including members of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, have said such redemption restrictions could spur, rather than curb, investor stampedes. The rules are aimed at making the $2.6 trillion money-fund industry less prone to investor runs during periods of market tumult by training investors to accept fluctuations in the value of their investments, and by ensuring funds could stop a trickle of outflows from turning into a flood.
