Putnam Money Market Fund: $12 billion in liquidation

Putnam Funds liquidates close to $12.3 billion prime money market funds on September 17, ’08 at 5pm; all money was distributed to investors. Each share of Prime fund was valued at $1 liked other Putnam’s other money market funds, and had no exposure to securities of Washington Mutual, Lehman Brothers or AIG at the parent company level.

Due to the fund experiencing a need for rescue, as the share dropped below $1 a share which is known as “breaking the buck” would have opened up the risk of loss to the investors, plus, the constraints on liquidity in the money markets created a risk that the fund will be exposed to additional losses when selling its portfolio securities when processing the redemptions.

The Trustees of Putnam Funds believed taking this action was better for the shareholders as it ensures a logical distribution of assets, determined to close the fund. Both Putnam VT Money Market Fund and Putnam Money Market Fund are not affected by the decision. $175 billion in assets were managed by Putnam as of May 2008, $103 billion is for mutual funds investors and $72 billion is for institutional accounts. Putnam has offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Copenhagen, Rome, Frankfurt, London and Boston.

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