ICD Publishes Comprehensive Whitepaper on Treasury Investment Options and Investment Risk Management

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Institutional Cash Distributors (ICD), the world's largest independent fund portal, today released their latest ICD Intelligencer.  The whitepaper investigates various surveys on institutional short-term portfolio asset allocation, strengths and weaknesses of treasury investment options, yield comparisons on various products, and best practices for trading and investment risk management.

This latest edition rates Bank Deposits, Money Market Funds (MMFs), Bond Funds, Commercial Paper, US Treasuries and other investments on the three primary treasury objectives: Capital Preservation, Liquidity and Yield.  Additionally, the whitepaper includes analysis from leading treasury consulting firm, Treasury Strategies, on the strengths and weakness of investment options and ratings before and after the post financial crisis regulations.

"The optimal portfolio will differ from organization to organization. The key is to evaluate all investment options and use best practices to achieve the firm's investment objectives within their risk tolerance," said Tory Hazard, ICD's Chief Executive Officer. "This issue of the ICD Intelligencer was developed as a desk reference for institutional investors and to advance dialogue with our clients to help guide ICD's 2018 development decisions."

A wide variety of survey findings are included in the Intelligencer, including:

• ICD clients are experiencing average Earnings Credit Rates of approximately 43 basis points
• AFP Liquidity Survey respondents continue to place the majority of their short-term investments into instruments with very short maturities and invest in very few investment vehicles
• J.P. Morgan Asset Management's worldwide clients have the largest allocation of their cash portfolios in MMFs ? regardless of the size of the client or their region.

"ECRs were a favored treasury investment option during the zero interest rate environment that persisted after the 2008 financial crisis," says Sebastian Ramos, ICD's SVP and Global Head of Trading. "We were surprised to hear from our clients that the current ECRs were so low and have not kept pace with the recent increases in interest rates."

The whitepaper also compares Prime and Government MMFs to illustrate the significant opportunity cost of excluding Prime MMFs from treasury portfolios; and examines technology, compliance and reporting solutions that were developed to mitigate U.S. Prime MMF Reform concerns.  Additionally, the ICD Intelligencer covers the spectrum of best practices for trading and investment risk management including: uniform trading protocol, compliance, Treasury Management System integrations, secure automated settlement and on-demand exposure analytics to ensure that portfolios are compatible with investment guidelines.

About ICD:
ICD is a leader in institutional trading and investment risk management. ICD's next-generation Software-as-a-Service portal, best practices methodologies and award-winning Transparency Plus® exposure analytics, support corporate treasury with end-to-end solutions. The ICD Global Trade Desktm provides expert service out of its San Francisco, London and Boston offices. ICD develops its own proprietary technologies through Institutional Cash Distributors Technology LLC in Golden, Colorado. Institutional Cash Distributors LLC is a FINRA/SIPC member. Institutional Cash Distributors Ltd is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom. For more information, visit http://www.icdportal.com.

Media contact
Debby Barri, ICD Public Relations Director
424-206-2402, [email protected]

SOURCE Institutional Cash Distributors (ICD)