OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings has affirmed the ratings on 60 U. S. money market funds (MMFs) and published one MMF rating, following a regularly scheduled review of the sector. The MMFs affirmed include 57 U. S.-based MMFs, regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under rule 2a-7 (Rule 2a-7), as well as three Cayman Islands-based MMFs that invest in USD-denominated securities. Collectively, the 61 MMFs had approximately USD783 billion of assets under management as of May 2016. A complete list of the MMFs can be found at the bottom of this release, or by following the link below.

KEY RATING DRIVERS

The main rating drivers for the affirmations are:

--The MMF portfolios' overall credit quality and diversification;

--Low exposure to interest rate and spread risks;

--Holdings of daily and weekly liquid assets consistent with shareholder profiles;

--Maturity profiles meeting Fitch's rating criteria;

--The capabilities and resources of the respective investment advisors.

PORTFOLIO CREDIT QUALITY/DIVERSIFICATION

Consistent with Fitch's criteria for rating MMFs at 'AAAmmf', the reviewed funds maintain high credit quality portfolios by investing exclusively in short-term securities rated at least 'F1' by Fitch or the equivalent. MMFs rated 'AAmmf' and 'Ammf' may elect to invest a small percent of their assets in securities rated 'F2' by Fitch or the equivalent.

These MMFs rated at 'AAAmmf' manage their portfolios to limit their exposures to individual issuers at 10% of the fund's assets, with no more than 5% of assets for those exposures above seven days in tenor. Minor and temporary deviations from this parameters may occur from time to time, mainly due to seasonal cash outflows. The funds also limit their individual repurchase agreement (repo) exposures to individual counterparties to 25% of a fund's total assets, provided the counterparties are rated 'A' or higher and that such repos are fully collateralized by high credit quality and liquid government securities. In the case of repo with counterparties rated 'A-/F2' or 'BBB+/F2', funds limit their exposure to individual counterparties to 10% of assets, as long as the repo is collateralized by high quality government securities and matures in one week or less. MMFs also limit their exposure to government agencies at 35% of assets, with exposures above 35% limited to short-dated securities.

The reviewed prime MMFs' Portfolio Credit Factor (PCF), which is a risk-weighted measure that considers the credit quality and maturity profile of the portfolio securities, generally met Fitch's 'AAAmmf' rating criterion of 1.50 or less.

Small, temporary deviations from Fitch's rating criteria will not necessarily trigger a rating action on the affected MMF, provided any deviations do not represent a risk to fund investors and a credible and achievable remediation plan is in place.

Fitch notes that many of the funds have exposure to certain Japanese banks that are rated 'A-/Negative Outlook/F1'. The credit profile of these MMFs may be adversely affected if the Japanese banks are downgraded.

MATURITY PROFILES

The reviewed MMFs seek to limit interest rate and spread risk by maintaining their weighted average maturity (WAM) and weighted average life (WAL) below 60 days and 120 days, respectively. These funds also limit the maturity date of any single investment to 397 days with the exception of floating rate securities issued by the U. S. government or government agencies, which could have maturities as long as 762 days. Portfolios and/or individual securities maturity limits may be lower, in line with the funds' or asset managers' investment policy and depending on issuers' creditworthiness.

LIQUIDITY PROFILES

The funds seek to maintain sufficient levels of daily and weekly liquidity to meet investors' redemption requests. Specifically, taxable MMFs rated 'AAAmmf' invest at least 10% of total assets in securities offering daily liquidity and at least 30% of total assets in securities providing weekly liquidity in line with Fitch's rating criteria. Tax-exempt MMFs invest at least 30% of their assets in securities offering weekly liquidity, consistent with Fitch's MMF rating criteria. The funds fully met the respective liquidity targets as of the review date.

FUNDS' OBJECTIVES

These MMFs seek to maximize current income to the extent consistent with the preservation of principal and timely liquidity through limiting credit, market, and liquidity risk.

INVESTMENT ADVISORS

Fitch views the investment advisory capabilities, resource commitment, operational controls, corporate governance, and compliance procedures of the respective fund's investment advisors as consistent with the ratings assigned to the funds.

MONEY FUND REFORM

Fitch's ratings review reflects the current regulatory structure of U. S. MMFs. On July 23, 2014, the SEC voted to adopt rule changes to money fund regulations under Rule 2a-7. Under the new rules institutional prime and tax-exempt money funds will be required to float their net asset values (NAV) and all non-government money funds will have the ability to impose liquidity fees and/or redemption gates at a time of stress. These two features will become effective no later than Oct. 14, 2016.

Fitch expects that in response to the reforms some investors will withdraw cash from prime money funds, which may pose a liquidity risk to the funds if redemptions are greater than expected. Fitch also expects that investor behaviour will be more sensitive to prime funds' level of weekly liquidity, since the new regulations give a fund's board of directors the ability to impose liquidity fees or redemptions gates at a time of stress if weekly liquidity falls below 30%. For this reason Fitch analyses the buffer that prime funds maintain above the 30% threshold, particularly in comparison to the fund's investor profile and asset flows. The funds' ratings may be sensitive to material changes in the credit quality, market risk, and/or liquidity profiles of the funds, or large changes in shareholder asset flows.

SURVEILLANCE

Fitch receives regular holdings information and other pertinent fund data from the funds' administrators and managers to conduct surveillance against ratings guidelines and maintain its money market fund ratings.

For additional information about Fitch's MMF ratings guidelines, please review the criteria referenced below.

RATING SENSITIVITIES

The ratings may be sensitive to material changes in the credit quality, market risk, and/or liquidity profiles of the funds. Temporary deviations from Fitch's criteria need not automatically result in rating changes, provided the fund manager is able to address them with credible near-term remedial actions. However, material adverse and continued deviations from Fitch's criteria for any key rating driver may lead to the rating being placed on Rating Watch Negative or downgraded.

Fitch affirms the following ratings:

--AB Bond Fund, Inc. - AB Government Reserves Portfolio at 'AAAmmf';

--AB Government Exchange Reserves at 'AAAmmf';

--BMO Government Money Market Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--BMO Prime Money Market Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--Daily Assets Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--Dreyfus Cash Management at 'AAAmmf';

--Dreyfus Institutional Cash Advantage Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--Dreyfus Institutional Preferred Government Money Market Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--Dreyfus Institutional Treasury & Agency Cash Advantage Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--Dreyfus Institutional Treasury Securities Cash Advantage Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--Federated Government Obligations Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--Federated Institutional Money Market Management at 'AAAmmf';

--Federated Institutional Prime Obligations Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--Federated Municipal Obligations Fund at 'Ammf';

--Federated Prime Cash Obligations Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--Federated Tax-Free Obligations Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--First American Government Obligations Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--First American Prime Obligations Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--First American Treasury Obligations Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--First American US Treasury Money Market Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--Goldman Sachs Financial Square Prime Obligations Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--JPMorgan Prime Money Market Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--JPMorgan U. S. Government Money Market Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--Milestone Treasury Obligations Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--Morgan Stanley Institutional Liquidity Fund - Prime Portfolio at 'AAAmmf';

--Morgan Stanley Institutional Liquidity Fund - Tax Exempt Portfolio at 'AAAmmf';

--Morgan Stanley Institutional Liquidity Funds - Money Market Portfolio at 'AAAmmf';

--Short-Term Investments Trust Government & Agency Portfolio at 'AAAmmf';

--Short-Term Investments Trust Liquid Assets Portfolio at 'AAAmmf';

--Short-Term Investments Trust STIC Prime Portfolio at 'AAAmmf';

--Short-Term Investments Trust Treasury Portfolio at 'AAAmmf';

--SSgA Money Market Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--SSgA Prime Money Market Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--SSgA U. S. Government Money Market Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--SSgA U. S. Treasury Money Market Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--State Street Institutional Liquid Reserves Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--State Street Institutional Treasury Money Market Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--State Street Institutional Treasury Plus Money Market Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--State Street Institutional U. S. Government Money Market Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--UBS Select Prime Institutional Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--UBS Select Prime Investor Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--UBS Select Prime Preferred Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--UBS Select Treasury Institutional Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--UBS Select Treasury Investor Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--UBS Select Treasury Preferred Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--Wells Fargo National Tax-Free Money Market Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--Wells Fargo Municipal Cash Management Money Market Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--Western Asset Government Money Market Fund, Ltd. at 'AAAmmf';

--Western Asset Government Reserves at 'AAAmmf';

--Western Asset Institutional Cash Reserves at 'AAAmmf';

--Western Asset Institutional Cash Reserves, Ltd. at 'AAAmmf';

--Western Asset Institutional Government Reserves at 'AAAmmf';

--Western Asset Institutional Liquid Reserves at 'AAAmmf';

--Western Asset Institutional Liquid Reserves, Ltd. at 'AAAmmf';

--Western Asset Institutional U. S. Treasury Obligations Money Market Fund at 'AAAmmf';

--Western Asset Institutional U. S. Treasury Reserves at 'AAAmmf';

--Western Asset Premium U. S. Treasury Reserves at 'AAAmmf';

--Western Asset U. S. Treasury Obligations Money Market Fund, Ltd. at 'AAAmmf';

--Western Asset U. S. Treasury Reserves at 'AAAmmf';

--Western Asset U. S. Treasury Reserves, Ltd. at 'AAAmmf'.

Fitch publishes the following rating:

--AB Fixed-Income Shares, Inc.- AB Government Money Market Portfolio at 'AAAmmf'.