Wilmington Trust covering more derivatives losses.

Wilmington Trust Co. last week injected an additional $3 million into two money-market mutual funds to cover losses on derivatives.

The move follows an $804,000 infusion made earlier this summer into one of the funds, the Rodney Square Management U.S. Government Portfolio, to cover losses on the same instruments.

The bank said the first injection was to ensure that the fund's net asset value did not drop below $1.

Peter Succoso, Wilmington's senior vice president of investment management, said the more recent infusion was not needed to prop up the share price.

Instead, the bank felt it needed to make up for all the derivatives losses to demonstrate its commitment to the funds.

"It was the right thing to do," he said.

The derivatives were so-called structured notes and cost of fund index floaters that the Securities and Exchange Commission this summer ordered money funds to shed.

The second infusion consisted of $1.1 million put into the government portfolio, and $1.9 million for the Rodney Square Money Market Portfolio.

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