If you can find evidence that claims made by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Schapiro about the riskiness of money market funds are true, the website TruthMarket will pay you $5,000.

The campaign, which is intended to demonstrate that Schapiro's claims are overblown, is asking for members of the public to do the following:

Provide verifiable evidence that the frequency of bank failures is reliably less than the frequency of money market funds since 2000 (where "failures" of banks include dissolutions, regulatory sponsored consolidations, and instances of exigent and excessive asset liquidations; and in the case of money market funds "failures" include instances where they broke the buck or would have except for fund family intervention).

After months of pushing for money market reforms such as a floating NAV and reserve fund, Schapiro abandoned her campaign earlier this month when it became clear that she lacked the support of the other SEC commissioners. This mutiny led to talk that Schapiro might leave her post by the end of the year.

Despite such talk, Schapiro still seems to be swinging. In a Wall Street Journal editorial, Shapiro wrote that her failure to push reforms "gave others in government" — such as the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) — "a green light to act where the SEC hasn't."  

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE