West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Global hedge fund industry group, The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), has welcomed the principles for hedge fund regulation published by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) today.

“We are very happy to welcome the publication of this report today because AIMA has already announced its support for several of the high level principles mentioned in it." Andrew Baker, AIMA CEO, said, “In our new policy platform of 24th February, we said that we supported global registration for managers and we are glad that IOSCO has also come out in favour of this.

“We also expressed our support for the reporting of systemically relevant information by managers of large hedge funds to their national regulators, and this is another one of IOSCO’s key principles.

“We are also delighted that IOSCO refers to the ‘development, implementation and convergence of industry good practices’ because AIMA has been extremely active in this area and is continuing a great deal of work on it with the other groups involved. We are following up on a G20 action point in this respect," he continued.

In a note of caution, however, Baker said, "We would stress that it is hedge fund managers, rather than the funds themselves, that should registered. It is also mentioned that hedge funds use derivatives for speculative purposes without stating that exchange-traded and over-the-counter derivatives are principally used by the relevant market participants for risk management purposes."

“Finally, we are concerned that these recommendations may lead regulators to seek quantity rather than quality of data. It is important that regulators have the expertise and resources to deal with the data they receive.”

AIMA has more than 1,100 corporate members worldwide, based in 40 countries, including hedge fund managers, fund of hedge funds managers, prime brokers, legal and accounting firms and fund administrators.

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“We welcome the communiqué from the G20 Finance Ministers. AIMA, as the trade body for the global hedge fund industry, has already announced its support both for the authorisation and regulation of hedge fund managers worldwide with their national regulators, and for the disclosure of systemically significant information.

This is an endorsement of the industry leadership displayed by AIMA when we put out the new policy platform on 24th February that featured a series of major proposals to increase transparency. We are pleased that these proposals are reflected in this communiqué.

We are also glad that the G20 made reference in their Progress Report on the Washington Action Plan to the global initiative on the convergence of hedge fund industry standards by AIMA, the Managed Funds Association (MFA) and the members of the Asset Managers Committee established by the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets.

Our three groups, which represent the great majority of hedge fund managers globally, are working towards a common set of principles to take this process forward, which is a major step forward by the industry worldwide.”

Andrew Baker, Chief Executive of AIMA
London, 16th March 2009

For media enquiries, please contact Christen Thomson, AIMA Director of Communications, on +44 (0)2078228380; email – cthomson@aima.org

About AIMA

As the only truly representative global hedge fund association, AIMA, the Alternative Investment Management Association, has more than 1,200 corporate members worldwide, based in 43 countries.

Members include leading hedge fund managers, fund of hedge funds managers, prime brokers, legal and accounting firms and fund administrators. They all benefit from AIMA’s active influence in policy development, its leadership in industry initiatives, including education and sound practice manuals and its excellent reputation with regulators worldwide.

AIMA is a dynamic organisation that reflects its members’ interests and provides them with a vibrant global network. AIMA is committed to developing industry skills and education standards and is a co-founder of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designation (CAIA) – the industry’s first and only specialised educational standard for alternative investment specialists. For further information, please visit AIMA’s website, www.aima.org.

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