The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a final report on the Money Market Funds Regulation (MMFR). The final report contains final versions of the technical advice, draft implementing technical standards (ITS), and guidelines on stress test scenarios carried out by MMF managers under the MMFR. The key requirements relate to asset liquidity and credit quality, the establishment of a reporting template and stress test scenarios carried out by MMF managers.
These represent the detailed rules required for the implementation of the new European Union regulatory framework aimed at ensuring the stability and integrity of money market funds. The key requirements under the different policy tools include:
Technical Advice
- the liquidity and credit quality requirements applicable to assets received as part of a reverse repurchase agreement;
- the criteria for the validation of the credit quality assessment methodologies and the criteria for quantification of the credit risk and the relative risk of default of an issuer and of the instrument in which the MMF invests, as well as the criteria to establish qualitative indicators on the issuer of the instrument;
- Implementing Technical Standards
- The development of a reporting template containing all the information managers of MMFs are required to send to the competent authority of the MMF, including on the characteristics, portfolio indicators, assets, and liabilities of the MMF. This information will be submitted to national competent authorities (NCAs) and then transmitted to ESMA;
Guidelines
- guidelines on common reference parameters of the scenarios to be included in the stress tests that managers of MMFs are required to conduct. This takes into account such factors as hypothetical changes in the level of liquidity of the assets held in the portfolio of the MMF, movements of interest rates and exchange rates or levels of redemption.