Some brand name money-market funds have billions of dollars of exposure to Spanish and Italian banks, but they're not worried.

Rather, spokespeople from Fidelity [see profile] and Legg Mason [see profile] told the Wall Street Journal that their firms are comfortable with their position.

Among the major U.S. funds, Fidelity Cash Reserves, repprtedly held $4.2 billion, or 3.5 percent of its assets, in certificates of deposit issued by Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, or BBVA, and Italian banks UniCredit SpA and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA as of Oct. 31.

Schwab Cash Reserves, the third-largest fund, also had $1.5 billion in securities from Banco Santander SA, BBVA, UniCredit and Intesa and Western Asset Money Market Fund, owned by Legg Mason Inc., the ninth-largest fund, holds $848 million in Banco Santander, BBVA and Intesa.

Legg Mason spokeswoman Mary Athridge told the pub that her firm is "comfortable with the creditworthiness of the institutions, and that is augmented by the fact that there are liquidity facilities available from the [European Union] and [European Central Bank]," adding that the firm "will continue to carefully monitor the situation."

Fidelity spokesman Adam Banker offered that his firm is "very comfortable" with all of its funds holdings in "high quality" foreign banks.

Charles Schwab [see profile] declined to comment on it own comfort or discomfort. 

Edited by: Hung Tran


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