In the midst of a federal overhaul of regulations affecting money market funds, Perkins Coie has lured an investment funds specialist to its office in Denver.
Stephen Keen, a former general counsel at Federated Investors, comes to Perkins Coie as senior counsel. Keen advises money market fund managers on all aspects of their business and is particularly attuned to the impact of recent changes at the federal level, such as the reform rules adopted in July 2014, which took effect in October 2014, with a compliance deadline – for the major provisions – of October 2016. The Securities Exchange Commission’s summary of these rules identifies their purpose as the alleviation of money market funds’ susceptibility to heavy redemptions in periods of stress, and the strengthening of funds’ ability to manage risk.
“Four months have gone by, we’re burning time up as we go along, and as people look at the operational hurdles, they’re becoming more and more concerned about getting everything done in time,” Keen said.
Keen has observed widespread concern in the market over the implications of the new rules. What was originally a two-year implementation period has shrunken to a 20-month implementation period, he said.
“There’s a real concern about the ability to get everything in compliance within the timeframe, get funds ordered and structured and the appropriate shareholders moved to the appropriate funds – ‘How do we go about doing that?’ Then there is the related question of how to continue to maintain viable funds under the new regulations, educate clients on their differences and benefits, and get the right clients to move over in as orderly a manner as possible. And everything involves some legal guidance, in terms of getting people out of one product and into another,” Keen added.
Keen maintained that as complicated as the recent reform was, it is nowhere near the Volcker Rule in terms of complexity and difficulty of implementation. At the same time, his clients would benefit from promptness on the part of regulators tasked with responding to queries.
“The Investment Company Institute has gone to the SEC staff with a number of interpretive questions, and we’re awaiting their responses. Those would be very useful in terms of planning. There’s an enormous amount that can be done in the interim, while we’re waiting,” he continued.
Keen holds a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School and a B.A. from Northwestern University.