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

“I do feel a sense of urgency about the structural weaknesses that exist in money market funds,” Schapiro said today at a Washington breakfast with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. The SEC has been working on two possibilities to change aspects of the $2.6 trillion money funds industry that make them “prone to runs,” she said, with the agency considering either a departure from the traditional $1 share price or mandating capital cushions.

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