Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Hedge Funds Standards Board looks to attract US and Asian managers

The UK-based Hedge Funds Standards Board (HFSB) is seeking to sign up more US and Asia-based managers to its best practice protocols.

The UK-based Hedge Funds Standards Board (HFSB), established in 2008 to develop and promote a set of voluntary hedge fund standards drawn up by a group of 14 predominantly UK-based hedge fund managers, is now aiming to attract managers from the US and Asia.

The HFSB standards outline best practices on disclosure, valuation, risk management, governance and investor rights.

The HFSB said most leading European hedge fund managers have now adopted the standards. It said nearly 60 hedge fund managers with combined assets of $216 billion had signed the standards.

Signatories include some of the largest UK-based hedge fund managers such as Man Group, Brevan Howard, Winton Capital and BlueCrest Capital Management.

A total of 46 international investors, including sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, endowments and funds of hedge funds (FoHFs) have also become members of HSFB's investor chapter and actively promote the adoption of the standards.

"Investors are now telling us that they would like to see wider adoption of the standards by managers in the US and Asian markets," said Dame Amelia Fawcett, chairman of the HFSB. Fawcett, the former chief operating officer of Morgan Stanley's international business, joined the HFSB in June.

The HFSB is also consulting on a series of amendments to the standards to make them "more relevant internationally".

A number of prominent hedge fund investors backed the HFSB's push to sign up more US managers. "We would welcome the reassurance that would come from knowing that US managers were confirming to the good practice laid out in the HFSB standards," said Tom Dunn, managing principal of New Holland Capital. The company manages a large portfolio of hedge fund investments of behalf of the pension fund for government employees in the Netherlands.

"We would generally expect managers in the US to meet these standards and support the HFSB's initiative to include more US and Asia-based managers," said Peter Koffler, managing director of Blackstone Alternative Asset Management.

Source: http://www.hedgefundsreview.com

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