As a result of the 2008 financial crisis, and to help make money market funds (“MMFs”) more resilient to the potential for heavy redemptions in times of stress, the European Commission issued a proposal for a regulation on MMFs, which has been in the pipeline since 2013.

Further compounding the need for reform was the fact that the guidelines on a common definition of European MMFs, adopted by the Committee of European Securities Regulators (now the European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) on 19 May 2010 (“Guidelines”) to create a minimum level playing field for MMFs in the EU, were not applied across all EU Member States.