Funds Hub
Money managers under the microscope
Socially useful?
Andrew Baker, boss of hedge fund industry lobbyists AIMA, has taken umbrage at the “unsavoury terms” used to refer to his members.
He doesn’t like the biblical monikers of locusts or parasites and gets very prickly indeed at accusations the Mayfair money men might be socially useless.
Not fair, says Baker, and if you want to argue, he’ll set his big, new, socially-useful, mates on you.
He says the hedge fund industry these days is as much about sensibly managing money for the giant pension funds (oh.. and let’s not forget charities and universities) as it is about speculating with the spare cash of the ultra-wealthy.
Blowin’ in the wind
The timing of the Alternative Investment Management Association’s hedge fund disclosure initiative indicates just how strong the winds of change are blowing in hedge fund land.
Coming just a day after ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet called the credit crisis “a loud and clear call” for extending hedge fund regulation, the move shows the hedge fund industry feels it must be more active in deciding the future shape of regulation.
