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Money market funds at risk too - thanks to the mortgage mess

Yesterday I wrote about mutual funds at risk because of the mortgage mess. In response one of my readers (thanks Gary!) alerted me to an article in Fortune talking about how the safest of investment vehicles -- money market funds - are caught up in the SIV problem. Again Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) comes to the top of the pack as hosting some of the riskiest investments for its investors through Columbia Cash Reserves Fund. Fortune reported that as of Oct. 12 this fund has about $640 million in Cheyene Finance, an SIV in trouble.

When I took a look at its most recent report to shareholders (Feb. 28,2007), I found Columbia Cash Reserves Fund had five of the biggest SIVs in its portfolio including Cullinan (HSBC Bank), K2 (Dresdner), Sigma (Gordian Knot), Links Finance (Bank of Montreal) and Sedna (Citibank International). In addition to these five, the other major SIVs are Centauri, Beta Finance and Five Finance -- all managed by Citibank (NYSE: C) - Tango Finance managed by Rabobank International and Victoria Finance managed by Ceres Capital Partners.

Two other players with money market funds tied to SIVs that were mentioned by Fortune were Fidelity's money market funds, which hold about $7 billion of its $305 billion in SIV debt, and J. P. Morgan Chase's (NYSE: JPM) Prime Money Market Fund, which holds about 5% of the assets in that fund in SIVs. SIVs held by Fidelity's money market fund include Asscher Finance, Beta Finance, Centauri Corp. Dorada Finance, Cullinan Finance, K2 Finance, Links Finance and Nightingale Finance, as of Sept. 30, 2007.

People use money market funds as though they were as good as a cash savings and they depend on the value of those funds to remain the same: always $1 for $1 plus interest earned. These types of funds should never be used for risky investments. While I believe there is at least one money market fund in the distant past that returned less than originally invested, that hasn't happened with a money market fund in years. Hopefully this SIV mess won't lead to the first time in recent history.

Check the assets of your money market fund and be sure it's not holding a lot of the SIVs in trouble.

Lita Epstein has written more than 20 books including, "Trading for Dummies" and "Reading Financial Reports for Dummies."

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Last updated: November 23, 2008: 06:26 AM

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