The Hedge Fund Standards Board (HFSB) has been granted affiliate membership of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).
More than 120 securities regulators are full members of IOSCO and the HFSB will join 62 other affiliate members involved in the markets, including the London Stock Exchange, Deutsche Börse and the International Capital Market Association.
David Wright, secretary general of IOSCO, says: "We are pleased to welcome the Hedge Fund Standards Board as an affiliate member of IOSCO. There is an important role for industry standards to play alongside statutory regulation in promoting transparency and good governance in the financial markets. The HFSB can play a valuable role working with regulators and supervisors."
Dame Amelia Fawcett (pictured), chairman of the HFSB, says: "Membership of IOSCO will provide a significant boost to our efforts to engage with the leading investors and hedge fund managers around the world. Like IOSCO, our raison d'être is to promote high standards and enhance investor confidence in the capital markets. We look forward to working with regulators and market participants to improve transparency, market integrity and risk management."
The HFSB was set up in Europe in 2008 as the standard setting body for the hedge fund industry and now has a growing membership internationally in both Asia and North America. Hedge fund managers in the US and Canada now account for 40 per cent of the HFSB's 121 signatories. Assets under management of all HFSB signatories total more than USD600 billion.
IOSCO's members regulate more than 95 per cent of the world's securities markets and it is the only international financial regulatory body that includes all the main emerging markets.
