New 'Liquidity Exchange Bank' to Back Up Money Market Funds
| 21 September 2009

According to
reports Fidelity and Vanguard are working together to form a new system designed to back up money market funds. The two firms are working together to create an entity they call the Liquidity Exchange Bank. The system will work similar to the FDIC which requires participating funds to pay fees into the bank to build a cash reserve which could be used in the event of a run on those funds.
A run on money market funds last September led the U.S. Treasury to create an emergency back-stop for the system, but that was a temporary fix and it expired yesterday.
Nearly $3.5 trillion is currently held in money market funds. Without sufficient protection or assurance that the value of those funds will remain constant the system is at risk and investors may look elsewhere for a stable place to stash their cash.