Recital 31

(31)MMFs should have a responsibility to invest in high-quality eligible assets. Therefore, an MMF should have a prudent internal credit quality assessment procedure for determining the credit quality of the money market instruments, securitisations and ABCPs in which it intends to invest. In accordance with Union law limiting over-reliance on credit ratings, it is important that MMFs avoid mechanistic reliance and over-reliance on ratings issued by rating agencies. MMFs should be able to use ratings as a complement to their own assessment of the quality of eligible assets. Managers of MMFs should undertake a new assessment of money market instruments, securitisations and ABCPs whenever there is a material change, in particular when it comes to the attention of the manager of an MMF that a money market instrument, securitisation or ABCP is downgraded below the two highest short-term credit ratings provided by any credit rating agency regulated and certified in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council ⁷ . To that end, the manager of an MMF should be able to establish an internal procedure for the selection of credit rating agencies suited to the specific investment portfolio of the MMF and for determining the frequency at which the MMF should monitor the ratings of those agencies. The selection of credit rating agencies should remain consistent over time.