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Report
Liquidity Transformation Risks in U.S. Bank Loan and High-Yield Mutual Funds
In this note, we examine the liquidity profiles of a sample of bank loan and high-yield open-end mutual funds. Among other things, we find that the ten largest bank loan mutual funds have increased their holdings of the hardest-to-value, generally most illiquid assets over the past decade.
Report
COVID Response: The Money Market Mutual Fund Facility
In this article, we discuss the run on prime money market funds (MMFs) that occurred in March 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and describe the Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility (MMLF), which the Federal Reserve established in response to it. We show that the MMLF, like a similarly structured Federal Reserve facility established during the 2008 financial crisis, was an important tool in stemming investor outflows from MMFs and restoring calm in short-term funding markets. The usage of the facility was higher by funds that suffered larger outflows. After the facility’s ...
Working Paper
Runs and Flights to Safety: Are Stablecoins the New Money Market Funds?
Stablecoins and money market funds both seek to provide investors with safe, money-like assets but are vulnerable to runs in times of stress. In this paper, we investigate similarities and differences between the two, comparing investor behavior during the stablecoin runs of 2022 and 2023 to investor behavior during the money market fund runs of 2008 and 2020. We document that, similar to money market fund investors, stablecoin investors engage in flight-to-safety, with net flows from riskier to safer stablecoins during run periods. However, whereas in money market funds run risk has ...
Working Paper
The Shift from Active to Passive Investing : Potential Risks to Financial Stability?
The past couple of decades have seen a significant shift in assets from active to passive investment strategies. We examine the potential effects of this shift for financial stability through four different channels: (1) effects on investment funds? liquidity transformation and redemption risks; (2) passive strategies that amplify market volatility; (3) increases in asset-management industry concentration; and (4) the effects on valuations, volatility, and comovement of assets that are included in indexes. Overall, the shift from active to passive investment strategies appears to be ...
Report
Money Market Mutual Funds: Runs, Emergency Liquidity Facilities, and Potential Reforms
This note describes past runs on non-government money market mutual funds and official sector actions that were taken to stem the runs. In addition, it highlights other cash management vehicles that may have vulnerabilities similar to those of non-government MMMFs. Finally, it proposes that converting all non-government MMMFs into government MMMFs could substantially reduce the likelihood of future official sector support for MMMFs.
Working Paper
Runs and Flights to Safety: Are Stablecoins the New Money Market Funds?
Similar to the more traditional money market funds (MMFs), stablecoins aim to provide investors with safe, money-like assets. We investigate similarities and differences between these two investment products. Our key finding is that, like MMFs, stablecoins also suffer from “flight-to-safety” dynamics. This is manifested in net flows from riskier to safer stablecoins on days of crypto-market stress. The same flight-to-safety dynamics also characterized flows during stablecoin runs, as exemplified by the two most severe episodes in 2022 and 2023. Furthermore, as flight-to-safety flows occur ...
Working Paper
Technology Providers and Financial Stability: Overview of Risks and Regulatory Frameworks
Technology-focused Third-Party Service Providers (TPSPs) have become important players in the operations of financial institutions and the financial markets. This paper summarizes micro- and macro-prudential regulatory frameworks in place to address risks that TPSPs pose to the financial system. The key takeaways are as follows: First, in the U.S., TPSPs operate under limited comprehensive prudential regulatory oversight, aimed primarily at ensuring that their products are safe and resilient on an ongoing basis. Second, while banks rely on multiple TPSPs and hundreds of their services daily ...
Working Paper
Technology Providers and Financial Stability: Overview of Risks and Regulatory Frameworks
Technology-focused Third-Party Service Providers (TPSPs) have become important players in the operations of financial institutions and the financial markets. This paper summarizes the micro- and macro-prudential regulatory frameworks in place to address risks that TPSPs may pose to the financial system.
Working Paper
Runs and Flights to Safety: Are Stablecoins the New Money Market Funds?
Similar to the more traditional money market funds (MMFs), stablecoins aim to provide investors with safe, money-like assets. We investigate similarities and differences between these two investment products. Like MMFs, stablecoins suffer from “flight-to-safety” dynamics: we document net flows from riskier to safer stablecoins on days of crypto-market stress and estimate a discrete “break-the-buck” threshold of $1, below which stablecoin redemptions accelerate. We then focus on two specific stablecoin runs, in 2022 and 2023, showing that the same flight-to-safety dynamics also ...