15th January 2019 – BlackRock is pleased to announce that our International Cash Management team successfully migrated all of our US Dollar and Sterling BlackRock Institutional Cash Series (ICS) money market funds in advance of the regulatory deadline of 21 January 2019. In addition, two of the Euro ICS funds have been converted successfully as well. This on-time conversion means that, effective 14 January 2019, clients were able to seamlessly transact in the funds under their new structures. Importantly, due to the guidance received from the Central Bank of Ireland, confirming that the Reverse Distribution Mechanism would not be allowed beyond 21 March 2019, the two BlackRock ICS Euro funds, which actively operate RDM, will only be converted in March 2019.
Peter Loehnert, Head of International Cash Management for BlackRock, says “We have been in constant dialogue with the CBI, our systems had been updated and fully tested, and clients had been communicated to. Thanks to many months of thorough preparation we were in the position to meet the expectations of our clients. Given the circumstances, we believe going live with all US Dollar and Sterling funds ahead of the 21 January 2019 deadline and continuing to offer the RDM mechanism in the respective Euro funds for as long as practically possible is the optimal outcome for our clients. Our post-reform line up offers the full suite of fund structures in Sterling, US Dollar and Euro so that clients have flexibility, scale and choice between the daily liquidity short term money market funds and our standard money market funds.”
