(Finance) – The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has calculated that the EU sector of Money Market Funds (MMF) I had assets of €1.44 trillion in 2021with 89% of funds domiciled in France, Luxembourg and Ireland.
MMFs are open-ended collective investment funds invest mainly in short-term instruments and aim to provide returns in line with money market rates and/or to preserve the value of your investment. They play a central role in the financial system by bringing together the supply and demand for short-term finance.
For typology of MMFs, Low Volatility NAV (LVNAV) MMFs represent 46% of total assets, followed by Variable NAV (VNAV) MMFs (42%) and Constant NAV (CNAV) MMFs (12%).
The professional investors they hold over 90% of EU MMFs. They represent 95% of the NAV for CNAVs and 99% for LVNAVs. The share of retail investors is highest for VNAVs, at 13% for short-term VNAVs and 12% for standard VNAVs, respectively.
“MMFs play a central role in the financial system, bringing together the supply and demand for short-term financing, and are closely interconnected with other parts of the financial sector,” he commented. Verena Ross, director by ESMA – Recent periods of stress experienced by MMFs in short-term funding markets (as in March 2020) have demonstrated the importance of monitoring trends and developments in the EU MMF sector”.