U.S. shutters money market guarantee program

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A year-old money market mutual fund guarantee program set up by U.S. officials after a big fund "broke the buck" during the height of the financial crisis ends today, the Treasury Department said on Friday.

"As the risk of catastrophic failure of the financial system has receded, the need for some of the emergency programs put in place during the most acute phase of the crisis has receded as well," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement.

The guarantee program made about $1.2 billion in participation fees for taxpayers and suffered no losses, Treasury said. The payments from asset managers were essentially insurance premiums used to fund the guarantees, which were put in place to prop up the $3.5 trillion money market fund industry.

When the program was set up officials were concerned investors would lose confidence in the funds after privately held Reserve Primary Fund "broke the buck" and saw its net asset value fall below the traditional $1 per share.

While some funds have required additional support from their parent companies since then, no money fund has needed support from the Treasury.

(Reporting by Glenn Somerville; Editing by James Dalgleish)