The phones are ringing off the hook at investment trust companies, as investors pull their cash out of money-management funds that fell below par value earlier this week.

Once the dust settles, fund managers have some hard questions to answer. Why were the funds allowed to drop below 10,000 yen? Could managers have done more to warn investors ahead of time? And, most important, will investors come back?

The falls were prompted by euro-yen bonds issued by troubled U.S. energy giant Enron Corp. The bonds made up huge chunks of funds managed by high-profile companies Nikko Asset Management Co., UFJ Partners Asset Management Co., Japan Investment Trust Management Co. and Sumisei Global Investment Trust Management Co.

MMFs are the equivalent to U.S. money-market funds and are marketed as a safe, "savings-oriented" substitute for bank deposits. MMFs have gained wide appeal as individual investors seek safe havens for their funds prior to April, when the government's full guarantee on time deposits expires.

But the four companies say it will be a long time before the funds make profits for investors again.

Critics say the losses show how ill-prepared brokerages are to serve the general public, just when they need to woo more individual investors.

"This is such a disgrace," says Kumi Fujisawa, director of Sofia Bank, a Tokyo think tank. "Brokerages have an obligation to prevent such losses from happening when creating financial products that are aimed at investment novices."

Including the Enron bonds was clearly a mistake, she said.

"Foreign bonds are a large risk" and even if they were incorporated, they shouldn't have made up such a huge chunk of the funds' assets, Fujisawa said.

The Enron bonds account for about 40 billion yen of the four companies' total net assets of 3.3 trillion yen.

This is the third time that MMFs have fallen below par value.

Last week, Sanyo Investment Trust Management Co.'s fund fell below par value after Sanyo booked appraisal losses of 5 billion yen for commercial paper issued by collapsed insurer Taisei Fire & Marine Insurance Co.

In September, the MMF issued by Meiji Dresdner Asset Management Co. fell below par after it booked losses on bonds linked to failed supermarket chain Mycal Corp.

"Frankly, this is just another example in a long list," says Hisao Oku, secretary general of the Japan Individual Investors' Association. "Japanese investors have been betrayed time and time again."

A more timely disclosure of information could have helped investors save themselves, Oku says, echoing the complaints of angry customers calling the four companies.

"It is true that some of our customers were unaware that Enron was included," said Nikko Asset spokesman Shingo Murooka.

Nikko Asset purchased the Enron bonds in June and July. This purchase was not listed in its biannual disclosure report issued in May.

Some fund managers provide monthly lists of the fund's movements to customers or to sales representatives. But these are often not provided unless customers ask.

In Nikko's case, customers technically have the right to view the list of companies in the fund by visiting the company's headquarters in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, but the company is reluctant to release this information on its Web site.

"When you're dealing with large funds of 100 billion yen or more, disclosing how often the contents are bought or sold could sway market prices, and this is not always in the interest of our customers," argues Murooka.

This is bunk, says Atsuto Sawakami, the manager of the two year-old Sawakami Fund, which has garnered 27,000 customers to date. Sawakami does not rely on sales personnel and only issues monthly information on the fund's movements and investment decisions.

"Supply-side arguments still sway decisions made by fund managers, who are supposed to be looking out for the interests of their customers first," Sawakami said. "Why should more information be harmful?"