Funds Hub

Hedge fund industry group AIMA today gave a relatively warm welcome to IOSCO’s regulatory plans.

After draft laws from the European Commission, which have been attacked by almost the entire UK hedge fund industry, IOSCO‘s proposals — including registration of managers, disclosure of systemically-important information to regulators, registration and supervision of prime brokers — must seem like a walk in the park.

IOSCO’s principles follow the G20 pledge in April to regulate the hedge fund industry. While hedge funds did not cause the credit crisis, the group says, they may have amplified its effects.

However, with so much regulation being put forward at present, AIMA is being very careful to point out any potential problems.

“We are concerned that these recommendations may lead regulators to seek quantity rather than quality of data,” the group says.

With regulators having been caught short in cases such as Madoff and Northern Rock during the credit crisis, merely collecting piles of information is of little use if it is not examined and acted upon in the right way.