OREANDA-NEWS. S&P Global Ratings said today that it assigned its 'AAAm' principal stability fund ratings (PSFR) to the shares of the Institutional Euro Liquidity Fund and the Institutional Euro Government Liquidity Fund. These two short-term money market funds are subfunds of the Institutional Cash Series plc fund (ICS) domiciled in Ireland and managed by BlackRock Asset Management Ireland Ltd. London-based BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Ltd. is the advisor and makes the day-to-day investment decisions.

The Institutional Euro Liquidity Fund seeks to maximize current income consistent with the preservation of principal and liquidity by maintaining a portfolio of high-quality, short-term money market instruments, such as commercial paper, certificates of deposits, floating rate notes, time deposits, and fully collateralized repurchase agreements. The Institutional Euro Government Liquidity Fund seeks a moderate level of current income as is consistent with the liquidity and stability of principal and invests in securities, instruments, and obligations issued or guaranteed by the governments of countries that were members of the eurozone at the time of purchase such as Treasury bills, government bonds, and other government obligations.

The funds are managed by an experienced team of investment professionals at BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Ltd., whose ultimate parent is BlackRock Inc. (AA-/Stable/A-1+), which had global assets under management of $4.9 trillion as of June 30, 2016. The maximum weighted-average maturity of the subfunds' portfolios is 60 days and the maximum weighted-average life to maturity of the funds' portfolios is 120 days. As of July 18, 2016, the net assets of the Institutional Euro Liquidity Fund were €23.2 billion and those of the Institutional Euro Government Liquidity Fund were €545 million.

The investment manager, BlackRock Asset Management Ireland Ltd., is also the manager of seven other ICS subfunds that we rate: the Institutional US Treasury Fund, Institutional US Dollar Liquidity Fund, Institutional Sterling Government Liquidity Fund, the Institutional Sterling Liquidity Fund, and the Institutional Euro, Sterling, and US Dollar Ultra Short Bond Funds. ICS is an open-ended investment company with variable capital. It has an umbrella fund structure. It is incorporated in Ireland as a public limited company and has been authorized as an Undertaking for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) by the Irish Central Bank. The subfunds' custodian is Dublin-based JP Morgan Bank (Ireland) PLC and the administrator is JP Morgan Administration Services (Ireland) Ltd. The ultimate parent for both is JPMorgan Chase & Co. (A-/Stable/A-2).

A fund rated 'AAAm' demonstrates extremely strong capacity to maintain principal stability and to limit exposure to principal losses due to credit risk. A rating of 'AAAm' is the highest principal stability fund rating that we assign. We will monitor the portfolios on a weekly basis.