HedgeOp Compliance, LLC has announced today that it is merging with The IMS Group, a leading European governance, risk and compliance services group. The enlarged Group has offices in London, New York, Boston and San Francisco, with more than 100 staff supporting approximately 700 investment management firms globally. Please visit HedgeOp’s website to read the full press release.
Today European Union finance ministers in Luxembourg reached unanimous agreement on a new set of rules regulating hedge funds in Europe. The deal will create a single “passport” that allows approved hedge funds operating in one EU country access to investors across all other EU countries in exchange for more stringent regulation, which is to be governed by the European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”).
The main obstacle in previous negotiations, which began in April 2009, has been how EU managers operating hedge funds outside the EU would be able market those funds to EU investors. Great Britain, which is home to approximately 450 hedge funds that comprise 80% of the total European hedge fund market, has been the strongest advocate of a single “passport” system. France has generally viewed UK regulations as insufficient in light of the financial crisis and supported ESMA being granted strong regulatory authority over the industry.
French finance minister Christine Lagarde acknowledged that the deal was very much a compromise. “I think we probably could have come up with something better,” she added.
The rules must be backed by the European Parliament next month before becoming law.
On July 23, 2010, the FSA published a consultation paper which incorporates the final text of the new Financial Stability and Market Confidence Sourcebook.
FINMAR 1 contains rules on the FSA’s information gathering powers, which have been revised and expanded to, among other things, include the power to require disclosure of information and documents by certain persons whose activities the FSA views as relevant to the stability of one or more aspects of the financial system.
The new FINMAR sourebook comes into force on August 6, 2010.
On July 23, 2010, the FSA published a consultation paper which incorporates the final text of the new Financial Stability and Market Confidence Sourcebook.
FINMAR 2 contains rules on short selling, which incorporate to a large extent the existing FSA short-selling disclosure regime (currently set out in the FSA Code of Market Conduct (“MAR”)), but also add new short-selling powers and penalties granted to the FSA by the UK’s outgoing Labour government under the Financial Services Act 2010 (the “FS Act”, which came into force on April 8, 2010).
Among other things, the FS Act provides that the FSA has the power to:
The new FINMAR sourcebook will come into force on August 6, 2010, which is also the date on which the revised and recast rules will come into effect and the existing short-selling rules in MAR will be deleted.