Money market fund regulations need to be revamped quickly to fixthe funds' inherent vulnerability to runs, said U.S. Securities andExchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro.

“I do feel a sense of urgency about the structural weaknessesthat exist in money market funds,” Schapiro said today at aWashington breakfast with reporters sponsored by the ChristianScience Monitor. The SEC has been working on two possibilities tochange aspects of the $2.6 trillion money funds industry that makethem “prone to runs,” she said, with the agency considering eithera departure from the traditional $1 share price or mandatingcapital cushions.

Regulators have debated how to make the funds more stable sincethe 2008 collapse of the $62.5 billion Reserve Primary Fund, whichtriggered an industry-wide run by clients that helped freeze globalcredit markets. The agency enacted changes two years later in anattempt to prevent runs, including new liquidity requirements,shorter maturity limits and enhanced disclosure mandates.