Reserve Management freezes funds

The Reserve Management Co. Inc. won’t accept new investors in any of its group of money market funds, the firm said yesterday. Also, redemptions on all 23 of those funds could take up to seven days to distribute. The Reserve’s Primary Fund (RPRXX), the nation’s oldest money market mutual fund, ”broke the buck” this week when the net asset value fell to 97 cents. The price reflected the fact that the fund held $785 million in debt from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. of New York that had lost all its value. The announcement about the bar to new investors was made prior to this morning’s introduction of a program by the Department of the Treasury to guarantee money market funds. A spokeswoman for the New York firm had no comment on how today’s announcement might affect the company’s new policy.