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Reuters – A global hedge fund industry group backs U.S. plans to require hedge fund advisers to register with federal regulators, a move that would align U.S. rules with those in the UK.

The Alternative Investment Management Association, in remarks to be delivered to a U.S. congressional committee on Thursday, also said registration creates a dialogue between the hedge fund adviser and supervisor that supports greater understanding of hedge fund activities.

The London-based group, which represents more than 1,100 hedge fund firms in more than 40 countries, is among those due to testify to the capital markets subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee. Other witnesses on the registration issue include the Teacher’s Retirement System of Texas and well-known short-seller James Chanos.

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The Wall Street Journal reports that the head of the Utah Retirement System is taking a stand on what he says are unfair hedge fund fees. As the Journal reports, Utah’s Larry Powell has extracted “better fees” from 10 of the 40 hedge funds in which Utah has a direct investment. In doing so, he has won fans in the institutional investing community, such as the head of the Illinois State Board of Investment, who told the Journal that:

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Bloomberg – Hedge-fund assets may fall to about $1 trillion by the middle of next year, a decline of almost 50 percent from their peak in June, because of market losses and client withdrawals, Citigroup Inc. said in a report.

Managers are likely to see investors, led by funds of funds, pull 20 percent of their money, Tobias Levkovich, an analyst at the New York-based bank, wrote yesterday. Funds of funds are middlemen who select hedge funds for their clients.

“The so-called `Swiss hot money’ wants out and funds are responding,” Levkovich wrote, referring to Swiss investors who have a shorter investing period than pension funds. “Citi’s credit analysts estimate that hedge funds have raised cash to roughly 40% of assets already in anticipation of known redemptions and possibly unanticipated demands from investors.”

Hedge funds lost an average of 16 percent this year through October, according to data compiled by Hedge Fund Research Inc., as stock and commodity markets tumbled and lending tightened. The industry has lost money in only one year — a 1.45 percent decline in 2002 — since the Chicago-based firm began tracking returns in 1990.

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