10/08/2011
European hedge fund standards board seeks to widen reach
The Hedge Fund Standards Board (HFSB), an association based in the United Kingdom which includes the major European hedge funds, has published a consultation document to widen the organisation’s international audience. The association, founded in 2008 to promote a high-level body of standards and practices in Europe, and based in London, where most actors in the hedge fund sector are located, was largely inspired by British regulations. Now that the major European actors have joined the association, which has 60 members, the association’s goal is to adapt its corpus of rules in order to attract American and Asian actors, the Board says in a statement. According to Dame Amelia Fawcett, chairwoman of the HFSB, “the standards are very widely accepted in the European market, and the major hegde fund managers in the United Kingdom and continental Europe are signatories to them. Investors would now like to see a wider adoption of these standards by managers in American and Asian markets.” In addition to the internationalisation of standards, the consultation is also an occasion to propose several amendments which would draw lessons from the financial crisis of 2007-2008, in areas such as risk management and transparency. The consultation is open until 28 October this year.
