Reuters scoops rivals with story on SEC money market rule plans

Reuters was more than 14 hours ahead of the Washington Post, and 20 hours ahead of Bloomberg and Dow Jones with the SEC’s plan to tighten up rules for money market funds. Reuters started moving headlines at 2 pm that outlined the agency’s plans to require more portfolio disclosure and boost a fund’s liquidity. Reuters clients were first to learn that the SEC was considering allowing fund directors to suspend redemptions. They were also first to learn that the SEC was considering shortening the debt maturity limit to 60 days and requiring money market funds to hold a minimum of 5 percent in highly liquid assets such as cash. The following day the SEC issued similar proposals at which time the other wire services were able to match the Reuters story. The Reuters report was picked up by a number of news sites including CNBC, Portfolio, CNN Money, Yahoo Business and Forbes.