CUSIP Global Services (CGS), managed by S&P Capital IQ on behalf of the American Bankers Association, has launched the CGS Hedge Fund Service, which offers unique CUSIP identifiers for domestic and global hedge funds.
Built in collaboration with eVestment Alliance, a global provider of institutional investment data intelligence and analytic solutions, and their extensive eVestment|HFN hedge fund platform, the new service covers over 11,000 hedge funds and funds of funds identified in the CUSIP database.
Historically, CUSIPs have been assigned to hedge funds on an ad-hoc basis. Over the past two years there has been a significant increase in requests for hedge fund CUSIPs with over 800 products uniquely identified. Now, for the first time, the CUSIP hedge fund universe is available in a single service.
"The Hedge Fund Service demonstrates CGS’ expansion of its mission to help market participants uniquely identify financial instruments. CGS is pleased to work with eVestment to expand our asset class coverage, and to address a long-standing industry need. With increased oversight by regulators, unique identification of hedge funds can only benefit industry participants," says Jim Taylor, CGS Managing Director. "eVestment brings an impressive level of expertise to the specialised hedge fund market."
Unique identification of hedge funds has multiple benefits for those who follow the industry. Investors will be able to speed investment research and more easily track prospective and current investments. Service providers will see substantially improved communications among fund administrators, portfolio managers and their business relationships.
According to Peter Laurelli, eVestment Vice-President: "eVestment has developed significant relationships with leading hedge fund managers over the years. We see the need for a recognised universal numbering system that will benefit the industry as well as the institutional investors we serve."
The CGS Hedge Fund Service contains 9-character CUSIP and CUSIP International Numbers (CINS) and 12- character ISIN identifiers plus basic descriptive data on the funds and, where available, fund-specific data including fund address, country of incorporation, investment strategy, investment region and redemption features. Available as a bulk delivery file, the service is updated weekly with a master refresh file.
