Securities and Exchange Commission 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Securities and Exchange Commission (``Commission'' or ``SEC'') is adopting amendments to certain rules that govern money market funds under the Investment Company Act of 1940. The amendments will tighten the risk-limiting conditions of rule 2a-7 by, among other things, requiring funds to maintain a portion of their portfolios in instruments that can be readily converted to cash, reducing the maximum weighted average maturity of portfolio holdings, and improving the quality of portfolio securities; require money market funds to report their portfolio holdings monthly to the Commission; and permit a money market fund that has ``broken the buck'' (i.e., re-priced its securities below $1.00 per share), or is at imminent risk of breaking the buck, to suspend redemptions to allow for the orderly liquidation of fund assets. The amendments are designed to make money market funds more resilient to certain short-term market risks, and to provide greater protections for investors in a money market fund that is unable to maintain a stable net asset value per share.

We are making technical corrections to amendments to our disclosure rules adopted in Release No. 33-9089 (December 16, 2009), which was published in the Federal Register on December 23, 2009 (74 FR 68334). Specifically, we are correcting Forms 10-Q and 10-K to retain the current numbering of the items appearing in each form to avoid confusion that might otherwise arise from references to the current numbering in professional literature. In addition, we are making three corrections to Form 8-K. We are correcting Form 8-K to add an instruction, which was inadvertently excluded, that corresponds to an instruction contained in Forms 10-Q and 10-K that allows certain wholly-owned subsidiaries to omit the disclosure of shareholder voting results. We also are correcting Form 8-K to amend the regulatory text to make it consistent with the discussion of the amendments to that form contained in Release No. 33-9089.

We are amending rules under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Securities Act of 1933 to clarify and provide additional flexibility regarding the format of the Notice of Internet Availability of Proxy Materials that is sent to shareholders and to permit issuers and other soliciting persons to better communicate with shareholders by including explanatory materials regarding the reasons for the use of the notice and access proxy rules and the process of receiving and reviewing proxy materials and voting pursuant to the notice and access proxy rules. The amendments also revise the timeframe for delivering a Notice to shareholders when a soliciting person other than the issuer relies on the notice and access proxy rules and permit mutual funds to accompany the Notice with a summary prospectus.