INVESTMENT VALUATION
Transamerica Floating Rate (the "Fund") is a series of the Transamerica Funds.
Transamerica Asset Management, Inc. (“TAM”) has been designated as the Fund's valuation designee pursuant to Rule 2a-5 under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, with responsibility for fair valuation subject to oversight by the Fund's Board of Trustees. The net asset value of the Fund is computed as of the official close of the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) each day the NYSE is open for business.
TAM utilizes various methods to measure the fair value of its investments on a recurring basis. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States of America establishes a hierarchy that prioritizes inputs to valuation methods. The inputs or methodology used for valuing securities are not necessarily an indication of the risk associated with investing in those securities. The three levels ("Levels") of inputs of the fair value hierarchy are defined as follows:
Level 1—Unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical securities.
Level 2—Inputs, other than quoted prices included in Level 1, which are observable, either directly or indirectly. These inputs may include quoted prices for the identical instrument on an inactive market, prices for similar instruments, interest rates, prepayment speeds, credit risk, yield curves, default rates, and similar data.
Level 3—Unobservable inputs based on the best information available in the circumstances, to the extent observable inputs are not available, which may include TAM's own assumptions used in determining the fair value of the Fund's investments.
The inputs used to measure fair value may fall into different Levels of the fair value hierarchy. In such cases, for disclosure purposes, the Level in the fair value hierarchy that is assigned to the fair value measurement of a security is determined based on the lowest Level input that is significant to the fair value measurement in its entirety. Certain investments that are measured at fair value using Net Asset Value per share, or its equivalent, using the "practical expedient" have not been classified in the fair value Levels. The hierarchy classification of inputs used to value the Fund's investments at July 31, 2024, is disclosed within the Investment Valuation section of the Schedule of Investments.
The availability of observable inputs can vary from security to security and is affected by a wide variety of factors, including, but not limited to, the type of security, whether the security is new and not yet established in the marketplace, the liquidity of markets, and other characteristics particular to the security. To the extent that valuation is based on models or inputs that are less observable or unobservable in the market, the determination of fair value requires more judgment. Accordingly, the degree of judgment exercised in determining fair value is generally greatest for instruments categorized in Level 3. Due to the inherent uncertainty of valuation, the determination of values may differ significantly from values that would have been realized had a ready market for investments existed, and the differences could be material.
Fair value measurements: Descriptions of the valuation techniques applied to the Fund's significant categories of assets and liabilities measured at fair value on a recurring basis are as follows:
Asset-backed securities: The fair value of asset-backed securities is estimated based on models that consider the estimated cash flows of each tranche of the entity, establish a benchmark yield, and develop an estimated tranche specific spread to the benchmark yield based on the unique attributes of the tranche. To the extent the inputs are observable and timely, the values would generally be categorized in Level 2 of the fair value hierarchy; otherwise they would be categorized in Level 3.
Corporate debt securities: The fair value of corporate debt securities is estimated using various techniques, which consider recently executed transactions in securities of the issuer or comparable issuers, market price quotations (where observable), bond spreads, fundamental data relating to the issuer, and credit default swap spreads adjusted for any basis difference between cash and derivative instruments. While most corporate debt securities are categorized in Level 2 of the fair value hierarchy, in instances where lower relative weight is placed on transaction prices, quotations, or similar observable inputs, they are categorized in Level 3.
Equity securities: Securities are stated at the last reported sales price or closing price on the day of valuation taken from the primary exchange where the security is principally traded. To the extent these securities are actively traded and valuation adjustments are not applied, they are categorized in Level 1 of the fair value hierarchy. Equities traded on inactive markets or valued by reference to similar instruments are generally categorized in Level 2 or Level 3 if inputs are unobservable.
