Focusing on the 2016 US money market funds (MMFs) reform, this study assesses the impact of removing rating-based rules on the behavior of regulated investors and on market prices. Difference-in-differences fund-level and security-level analyses show a positive impact of the reform on the level...

U.S. debt ceiling crises in 2011 and 2013 were marked by significant outflows from money market funds (MMFs). This study evaluates the behavior and motivations of investors redeeming from MMFs during these crises. We find that the majority of redemptions reflect a generalized flight-to-liquidity...

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, prime and tax-exempt money market funds (MMFs) faced increased demands for redemption. Meeting redemptions required MMFs to sell assets into increasingly illiquid markets. Using the emergency authority outlined in Section 13(3) of the Federal...

On September 16, 2008, following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the Reserve Primary Fund “broke the buck,” meaning that its net asset value (NAV) fell more than 0.5% below the $1 per share target value maintained by money-market funds (MMFs). When the Reserve Primary Fund could not restore...

This paper documents significant cross-border effects of the 2014 US money market fund (MMF) reform on MMFs in the euro area. As US-based prime MMFs became less money-like due to the reform, euro area-based prime MMFs received large inflows from foreign investors. These cross-border flows were...

We document the consequences of money market fund risk taking during the European sovereign debt crisis. Using a novel data set of security-level holdings of prime money market funds, we show that funds with large exposures to risky Eurozone banks suffered significant outflows between June and...

On 23 July 2014, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) passed the "Money Market Reform: Amendments to Form PF ," designed to prevent investor runs on money market mutual funds such as those experienced in institutional prime funds following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. The...