Special Reports » OTHER REPORTS » ENHANCED CASH

— Hughes: US growth levels are slower

Professionalism within the corporate treasurer market is making investors realise that cash is no longer there just to pay the bills but should be made to work. Paula Garrido reports.

Judith Benson, money market product manager at Insight Investment, charts the rise of liquidity funds as an alternative to short-term deposits and the advantages and disadvantages of the products.

Jonathan Curry of Barclays Global Investors outlines the different categories of enhanced cash funds and the risks associated with them, as well as showing the increasing innovation in the asset class.

Enhanced cash products take different approaches to adding risk, limiting liquidity and increasing potential returns. If only managers could agree on a definition, writes Elizabeth Cripps.

Sander Boelen, senior vice president, global head of short term asset group sales, ABN AMRO Asset Management outlines how to optimise the trade-off between liquidity, risk and return.

Provided investors enter into the world of enhanced cash funds with their eyes open, there are good reasons to invest. Roxane McMeeken assesses an often misunderstood instrument.

Pension funds intending to set aside cash for long periods can enhance yields and lower volatility by adopting a combination of money market and enhanced cash strategies, says   Sander Boelen.

Pension funds have become increasingly aware of the importance of cash management since the late 1990s. In 1995, money market funds in Dublin, Luxembourg and the Channel Islands had less than $1bn (?770m) in assets under management but this had grown to $204.2bn (?157.62bn) by the end of the first quarter of 2004.

The cash management industry in the UK and Europe has a lot of catching up to before it reaches the sums handled in the US. But interest and take-up is on the verge of serious growth, says Christopher Oulton.