US regulators have postponed the implementation of expanded hedge fund reporting requirements for a fourth time, giving private fund managers more time before they must comply with additional Form PF disclosures, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said the filing deadline for the amended Form PF requirements would be pushed back to 1 July, 2027.
Form PF is designed to give regulators greater visibility into private fund exposures and potential sources of systemic risk, including counterparty concentrations, sudden margin calls and other events that could trigger significant losses or destabilise markets.
The expanded reporting regime was introduced under the previous US administration and has faced sustained opposition from the private funds industry. Managers have raised concerns about the security of commercially sensitive information, including details of investment strategies, arguing that greater disclosure could increase the risk of confidential data being exposed or compromised.
The latest postponement comes against the backdrop of the collapse in fortunes of Situational Awareness, an artificial intelligence-focused hedge fund whose highly leveraged equity positions suffered a severe reversal in July.
The fund reportedly saw assets under management plunge from about $45bn to roughly $10bn during the turmoil. The episode has renewed attention on how regulators monitor leverage, concentrated positions and interconnected exposures across the hedge fund industry.
The SEC has subsequently issued subpoenas to major Wall Street banks as part of its examination of the events surrounding Situational Awareness.
The regulators had already signalled in April that they were considering a significant overhaul of Form PF. Under a proposal unveiled by the SEC and CFTC, the amount of information required and the number of private funds subject to reporting could be reduced.
One proposed change would raise the asset threshold for Form PF reporting from $150m to $1bn, potentially removing a large number of smaller private funds from the regime.
That proposal has yet to be finalised.
