Fitch Affirms 'AAA/V1+' Ratings of Evergreen Municipal Money Market Fund.NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of -- Fitch Ratings Fitch Ratings An international rating agency for financial institutions, insurance companies, and corporate, sovereign, and municipal debt. Fitch Ratings has headquarters in New York and London and is wholly owned by FIMALAC of Paris. affirms the 'AAA/V1+' ratings assigned to the Evergreen Municipal Money Market Fund, a money market fund managed by the Evergreen Investment Management Company, LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control (EIMC EIMC Electronic Imaging and Media Communications (University of Bradford department) ). The affirmation is a result of Fitch's annual review of the fund and is based on the credit quality of the funds' assets and the capabilities of EIMC as an investment advisor Investment Advisor 1. A person making investment recommendations in return for a flat fee or percentage of assets managed, known as a commission. 2. For mutual fund companies, it is the individual who has the day-to-day responsibility of investing and monitoring the cash and . As of Feb. 9, 2009, the portfolio had approximately $7 billion in total assets under management Assets Under Management (AUM) is a term used by financial services companies in the mutual fund and money management or investment management business to gauge how much money they are managing. . The Evergreen Municipal Money Market Fund seeks to achieve as high a level of current income exempt from federal income tax as is consistent with preserving principal and providing liquidity. The fund's portfolio is currently invested in tax-exempt obligations issued by U.S. states and subdivisions with remaining maturities of 13 months or less. The fund maintains portfolio credit quality by investing at least 95% of its total assets in securities rated at least 'A/F1' by Fitch or of a comparable quality by other global rating agencies. As of Feb. 9, 2009, the fund held one security rated in the 'BBB' rating category by two global rating agencies, representing 0.06% of the portfolio. Fitch views the credit risk to the portfolio as being mitigated by the small size of the holding and the availability of a put provision with a seven-day notice. Should the fund's exposure to securities rated in the 'BBB' rating category increase, this could have negative rating implications. As of the same date, approximately 92% of the fund's portfolio was allocated to variable rate demand notes (VRDNs) and tender option bonds (TOBs), which benefit from having one- or seven-day put facilities provided by appropriately rated counterparties. The fund continues to participate in the U.S. Treasury U.S. Treasury Created in 1798, the United States Department of the Treasury is the government (Cabinet) department responsible for issuing all Treasury bonds, notes and bills. Some of the government branches operating under the U.S. Treasury umbrella include the IRS, U.S. Department's Temporary Guarantee Program for Money Market Funds. Under the terms of the program, only shareholders on record as of the close of business as of Sept. 19, 2008 are guaranteed to receive $1.00 for each share held in the fund on that day. The fund seeks to maintain liquidity to meet anticipated redemptions by purchasing daily VRDNs and maintaining a short weighted-average maturity weighted-average maturity A valuation of mortgage loans pooled into a mortgage pass-through security and calculated by multiplying the amount of the mortgage that is outstanding by the weighting of the remaining number of months to maturity for each mortgage by investing a substantial part of its portfolio in weekly VRDNs. As of Feb. 9, 2009, the fund's weighted-average maturity was 17 days. EIMC has been managing mutual funds and private accounts since 1932 and managed over $175 billion in assets in various Evergreen funds as of Dec. 31, 2008. Fitch views EIMC's investment advisory capabilities, resource commitment, operational controls, corporate governance, and compliance procedures as consistent with the ratings assigned to the fund. Fitch will publish the fund's credit profile on its web site www.fitchratings.com in the near future. On Jan. 26, 2009, Fitch issued an exposure draft outlining proposed criteria changes for rating global money market funds. The finalization of the criteria remains subject to a 60-day comment period. The report, entitled 'Exposure Draft: Global Money Market Fund Rating Criteria' is also available on Fitch's web site at www.fitchratings.com. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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