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CHICAGO--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Fitch Ratings has affirmed the 'AAAmmf' rating assigned to the First American Treasury Obligations Fund managed by U.S. Bancorp Asset Management (UBAM), a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of U.S. Bank, N.A. (NYSE: USB)

KEY RATING DRIVERS:

The main drivers for the rating assignment are:

--The fund's overall credit quality and diversification;

--Short maturity profile;

--Minimal exposure to interest rate and spread risks;

--Overnight and one-week liquidity profile;

--The capabilities and resources of UBAM as investment advisor.

The 'AAAmmf' money market fund rating reflect the fund's extremely strong capacity to achieve the investment objectives of preserving principal and providing shareholder liquidity through limiting credit, market and liquidity risk.

FUND CREDIT QUALITY/DIVERSIFICATION

Consistent with Fitch's 'AAAmmf' rating criteria, the fund maintains a high credit quality by investing exclusively in securities rated at least 'A/F1' or equivalent. The fund seeks to mitigate counterparty risk arising from investments in repurchase agreements by transacting with counterparties rated at least 'A/F1' or equivalent. The fund has the ability to enter into overnight and term repurchase agreements backed by U.S. treasury securities. In line with the fund's investment policy, the value of collateral exceeds the value of the repurchase agreement by a specified overcollateralization rate that is consistent with the assigned rating.

MATURITY PROFILE

The fund seeks to limit interest rate and spread risk consistent with Fitch's ratings criteria for funds rated 'AAAmmf'. The fund limits its weighted average maturity to reset date (WAMr) and weighted average final maturity (WAMf) to 60 days and 120 days, respectively. As of Dec. 8, 2011 the fund did not hold any floating rate securities and as such, had a WAMr of 51 days and a WAMf of 51 days.

LIQUIDITY PROFILE

The fund's additional investment restrictions are aimed at maintaining sufficient levels of daily and weekly liquidity to meet investors' redemption requests. In line with amended Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act of 1940, which governs the investment activities and operations of U.S. money market funds, the fund must invest at least 10% of total assets in daily liquid assets and at least 30% of total assets in weekly liquid assets. As of Dec. 8, 2011, the fund met the liquidity requirements mandated by Rule 2a-7 and was also in line with the liquidity guidelines outlined in Fitch's rating criteria.

FUND OBJECTIVES

The fund Seeks to provide maximum current income and daily liquidity by purchasing U.S. Treasury securities and highly liquid repurchase agreements collateralized at more than 100%. As of Dec. 8, 2011, the fund had approximately $9.3 billion in assets under management.

INVESTMENT ADVISOR

UBAM is a wholly-owned subsidiary of U.S. Bank, N.A. ('AA-/F1+'). Fitch views USB's and UBAM's investment advisory capabilities, financial and resource commitments, operational controls, corporate governance, and compliance procedures as consistent with 'AAAmmf' rating assigned to the fund. As of March 31, 2011, UBAM had approximately $56 billion in assets under management.

RATING SENSITIVITY AND SURVEILLANCE:

The rating may be sensitive to material changes in the credit quality or market risk profiles of the fund. A material adverse deviation from Fitch guidelines for any key rating driver could cause the rating to be lowered by Fitch. Furthermore, given the fund's primary investment focus on domestic and foreign issuers in the financial sector, the ratings may be sensitive to material adverse changes in the sector globally.

Fitch receives weekly fund holdings information and other pertinent fund data from the fund's administrator to conduct surveillance against ratings guidelines and maintain its money market fund rating.

Additional information is available at '[ www.fitchratings.com ]'. The ratings above were solicited by, or on behalf of, the issuer, and therefore, Fitch has been compensated for the provision of the ratings.

The sources of information used to assess this rating were the public domain and UBAM.

Applicable Criteria and Related Research:

--'Global Money Market Fund Rating Criteria', April 4, 2011;

--'U.S. Money Market Funds Sector Update', Oct. 18, 2011.

Applicable Criteria and Related Research:

Global Money Market Fund Rating Criteria

[ http://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=614345 ]

U.S. Money Market Funds Sector Update: Q3 2011 -- AMENDED

[ http://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=654012 ]

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