Shooting at Money Market Funds

Banks and S and Ls attack a popular rival

Money market funds have become a highflyer for savers. Like a bank, a money fund takes in deposits and pays them out on demand. But unlike a commercial bank, which is limited by the Federal Reserve to paying 5ΒΌ% interest, money market funds face no restrictions on the return they pay investors. At times during 1980, some yielded close to 18%. An estimated 5 million new money market fund accounts have been opened in the past three years, and last week the funds' assets went over $100 billion. But now banks...

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