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BOSTON, March 31 (Reuters) - U.S. money manager Legg Mason Inc (LM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it has stepped in again to bail out a money market fund and will take a related charge of $195 million, raising concerns that companies may need to take more write-downs due to the credit crunch.

Legg Mason, the second-biggest publicly traded U.S. asset manager, said in a statement it has entered into capital support agreements to provide support to a money market fund of a subsidiary.

Under the agreements, Legg Mason will make capital contributions to the fund if the fund realizes a loss on the sale of, or certain other events, relating to two asset backed commercial paper securities in the portfolio, it said. It will contribute up to $400 million to the fund, Legg Mason said.

The agreements have resulted in Legg Mason incurring a non-cash charge of $195 million net of taxes, or $1.38 a share, for the quarter ended March 31, it said. Together with its earlier steps to support the money funds, the non-cash charge rises to $279 million, or $1.96 a share, the company said.

Some analysts said Legg Mason's latest bail-out move did not bode well for the industry.

"It would seem to suggest that the issues in the credit markets related to liquidity continue to remain a challenge," said Michael Kim, an analyst at Sandler O'Neill & Partners.

"There have been more than a handful of companies that have had similar issues. The risk of further write-downs or moves to support their funds is incrementally higher today just based on Legg Mason's announcement," Kim said.

Money market funds are popular with investors because they are considered very safe, but now that the underlying securities issued by the structured investment vehicles are sinking, an increasing number of firms are using their own money to help investors escape the subprime market meltdown.