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The Managed Funds Association (MFA) and the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) have submitted a joint comment letter to the US SEC on the it's proposed rule on the use of derivatives by mutual funds and other registered investment companies.  While generally supporting several aspects of the SEC’s proposal, including asset segregation requirements and an activities-based approach to regulation, the Associations have concerns with the adverse effects of the rule’s imposition of a new notional-based leverage limit on registered funds.     The letter also questions the SEC’s attempt to redefine and regulate derivatives as “senior securities” under Section 18 of
By Philipp Neumann (pictured), Counsel Campbells, BVI, Team BVI Member – Starting a regulated investment fund can easily become a vicious circle for many start-up fund managers: The lack of track record will make it difficult to raise investor capital regardless of how creative or extraordinary the ideas of the start-up managers may be and, in turn, the lack of investor capital will often make it difficult to bear the upfront costs for the establishment of a regulated fund.  In the past, start-up managers would find themselves in the situation where they had to start with unregulated vehicles in order
Colleen Byrne has joined Cowen Prime as Vice President. Her primary responsibilities will be in Capital Introduction, where she will work further develop this part of the firm’s offering.  Byrne will also engage with the firm’s prime brokerage sales team to identify new business development opportunities.   Byrne joins Cowen following two years as a consultant with Hedge Connection, an alternative investment media company focused on establishing connections between hedge fund managers and allocators utilising the firm’s electronic platform. Previously, she was affiliated with Asset Alliance Corporation/Hedgeharbor Inc, a hedge fund investor platform, as Associate Director.  Byrne will be located
Counselytics has deployed its  AI technology in the alternatives investment space. Using machine learning technology, Counselytics is aimed at providing a fast, economical and automated process to find and analyse limited partnership agreements wherever they reside.  As Counselytics finds and centralises LPAs, it classifies and extracts up to 35 key partnership terms, including details on fees and expenses, waterfalls, taxation and governance. Counselytics also works as a question answering system with the ability to query for specific issues related to the LPAs, and the system returns both the correct answer and the most relevant sections of the LPA. The technology can analyse
Jersey’s funds industry will need to embrace FinTech, assert its long-standing expertise and focus on innovation in order to remain at the forefront of a constantly evolving global funds landscape, according to the chairman of the Jersey Funds Association (JFA). Speaking at this year’s annual JFA Dinner (18 March), Ben Robins (pictured) told an audience of over 450 funds professionals, senior politicians and regulatory representatives that the recent performance of Jersey’s funds industry painted an extremely positive picture and positioned the jurisdiction well as a centre for alternative funds business. Highlighting that the total value of funds business grew at
Tom Casteleyn (pictured), Head of Product Management for Custody, Cash and FX at BNY Mellon comments on how delays to the ECB’s T2S programme have derailed the project… Last year’s delays to the ECB’s ambitious T2S programme have derailed the project’s execution timeline, with wave 2, scheduled to go live on 28 March, shaping up to be a minor event. The real test of the future success of T2S will be when significant settlement volume goes live on the platform. The postponement of Euroclear’s domestic CSD migration, which comprises more than 25% of the business intended to be hosted by
Although forecast to grow by 6.4 per cent in 2016, there are fears over the health of China's economy and the impact this could have on the global economy. Coupled with the lack of real growth that developed market economies are experiencing, the threat of slipping back into a global recession is growing. This is despite central bank intervention, with its commitment to low interest rates, which has pumped money into the banking system and created a five-year bull market in equities yet at the same time has failed to generate meaningful inflation.  "I think the actions of central banks
Oligo Swiss Fund Services received its license from the Swiss authorities 13 months ago to provide Swiss legal representative services and has already onboarded more than 200 funds registered for distribution to Swiss qualified investors. These include offshore hedge funds, UCITS-compliant hedge funds and private equity funds.  "Our team has experience in hedge funds, UCITS funds and private equity funds," explains Luis Pedro (pictured), CEO of Oligo Swiss Fund Services. "The size of fund assets on the platform ranges from EUR20 million at the lower end to EUR20 billion at the upper end, spanning all types of strategies and structures
Switzerland is a key part of the global business model at BNP Paribas Securities Services, whose successful acquisition last June of Credit Suisse Prime Fund Services has helped it to become an industry leader in alternative fund administration.  With a depositary bank network spanning 15 European jurisdictions, EUR1.2 trillion of assets under depositary and 1.8 trillion of assets under administration, BNP Paribas Securities Services is leveraging its scalability and breadth of expertise to bring support to Switzerland's fund management community; both traditional and alternative.  Commenting on the PFS acquisition, Garrick Smith (pictured), Head of BNP Paribas Securities Services Switzerland, emphasises
It is now one year in to the Swiss Collective Investment Scheme Act (CISA) and overall impressions appear to be that it has been a success. One particular aspect of CISA, namely the requirement for alternative fund managers marketing their funds in Switzerland to "unregulated qualified investors" (eg pension funds, family offices) to appoint a Swiss Fund Representative and Paying Agent, has proven to be no more than a mild shower in a teacup.  A year ago, fund managers were aghast at the idea of having to incur yet more regulatory costs, but those fears have proven to be largely

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