As reported on CNBC, The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission has turned its attention to hedge funds, as it continues to examine the causes of the financial meltdown.
In the last few days, the FCIC sent a detailed survey to the member list of the Managed Funds Association (the main lobbying arm of the hedge fund industry), according to people who have received the survey. Read the rest of this entry »
According to the BBC - A key committee of Euro MPs is preparing to vote on a controversial new directive regulating hedge funds and venture capitalists.
London-based fund managers have said the proposals will make it impossible for funds based outside the EU to raise money within Europe.
The US government has argued those plans are protectionist.
Britain’s new government wanted to delay the vote, but a report suggests efforts failed. Read the rest of this entry »
As reported today on FINalternatives, smaller hedge funds would have to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission under an amendment to the financial regulation reform bill making its way through Congress. Read the rest of this entry »
As reported in the Financial Times, the US Securities and Exchange Commission is touting a new brain trust in response to an oft-cited criticism that its staffers do not have the necessary level of industry knowledge and experience to effectively regulate the business.
The SEC’s new asset management unit is part of a broader reorganisation at the agency designed to make it a more efficient and effective regulator. The unit will focus on investment advisers, investment companies, hedge funds and private equity funds. Read the rest of this entry »
As reported in the Wall Street Journal , federal regulators are examining whether hedge-fund managers abused tools known as “side pockets” that helped prevent clients from withdrawing billions of dollars of assets during the financial crisis. More specifically, the examinations are being conducted by the Enforcement Division’s new “Asset Management Unit”, which is headed by co-chiefs Rob Kaplan and Bruce Karpati, and which was created to cover, among other things, hedge funds, private equity funds and investment advisers. The Asset Management Unit is apparently looking into the possibility of disclosure and valuation issues surrounding the use of side pockets during the financial crisis. Read the rest of this entry »
As SEC chairman, Schapiro pledged to quickly pursue new limits on short selling. In April, just two months after she took the job, the agency unveiled a proposal to crack down on the practice.
But more than a year after Schapiro took office, the SEC has not yet written into the Wall Street rulebook the short-selling limits — or most of the other measures that the agency has proposed to more tightly regulate the financial system. According to the Washington Post, whether Schapiro can achieve more of her reform agenda will be a test of how much she can change the SEC, which gained a reputation as a weak Wall Street regulator in the years leading up to the financial crisis………
According to a report from the Financial Times, Paulson & Co, a hedge fund that made billions of dollars betting against subprime mortgages, has received a request for information from the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with an investigation into complex securities at the heart of the financial crisis, according to people familiar with the matter. In the months prior to the real estate crash, which pre-empted the global economic volatility, the company made $15 billion from investments in subprime deals.
As discussed on Dealbreaker, reports say that Boston-based Loch Capital Management has been “hit hard” by redemptions since the friend, Steven Fortuna, of founders (and bros) Timothy and Todd McSweeney pleaded guilty to insider trading, and agreed to cooperate with the government. Reuters is reporting that neither brother has been implicated in the Galleon investigation, in the clubby world of Boston’s hedge fund community, speculation has been swirling around the firm.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is shaking up its enforcement division, establishing five priority areas, including one pointed directly at hedge funds and private equity firms.
The SEC has announced that Carlo V. di Florio has been named Director of the agency’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE). Di Florio was previously a partner in the Financial Services Regulatory Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers where he “played a leading role in strengthening the corporate governance, risk management and regulatory compliance practice.”
He has also played a “leading role in numerous high-profile engagements where PricewaterhouseCoopers was retained to investigate corporate fraud, corruption, conflicts of interest and money laundering.”
