The Hedge Fund Standards Board (HFSB) welcomes the Turner Review on the regulatory response to the global banking crisis.
The HFSB is supportive of proposals for regulators to collect information about hedge funds and their activities as required for systemic purposes and for this practice to be extended internationally.
The HFSB accepts that if hedge funds were to behave like banks, then they should be regulated like banks. However, it notes that Turner says: “Hedge funds in general are not bank like in their activities.”
The HFSB shares the Turner Review’s concern about standards in some offshore centres where hedge funds are domiciled. The HFSB standards already require enhanced governance standards for funds.
Antonio Borges, chairman of the HFSB, said:
“The UK has the most advanced regulatory regime in the world for hedge fund managers, which combines general powers of oversight and authorization with strong market pressure by investors.
“We shall continue to work with the FSA, other international supervisors and the Financial Stability Forum to strengthen the system by encouraging adoption of the HFSB’s global standards.”