Citco Bank says it will run a series of Hedge Fund Academies across Europe, starting with Switzerland this year and the UK, Germany and Italy over the next two years. The fund administrator has run a Hedge Fund Academy in Switzerland for the last year offering educational alternative investment courses.
Citco says its Hedge Fund Academy offers specialist courses on all aspects of hedge funds to a wide range of industry professionals including investors, investment advisers, finance, pension fund and portfolio managers, traders, start-up hedge funds, back office, operational, compliance and risk managers.
Dr Peter Maier, a hedge fund academic and University Professor at Hochschule Zurich/ Winterthur, teaches a course on the different hedge fund strategies whilst Ernst & Young handle the legal and fiscal course, while Citco Fund Services teaches about hedge fund administration.
” The Citco Hedge Fund Academy is the result of very strong demand in the industry for an independent, highly qualified educational programme covering all aspects of hedge funds investments,” explains Willem Holst, Director, Citco Bank Nederland. “We ran three hedge fund academies over the last year in Switzerland which each attracted about 50 people over a 3 days seminar. Building on this success we are planning to offer similar academies over the coming years in Switzerland, the UK, Italy and Germany. The hedge fund market is booming and the rapid growth of alternative investments has left practical knowledge gaps cruelly exposed. Specialist expertise is vital to the careful selection of hedge funds and fund of hedge funds – a market which currently comprises over 6000 products. We are currently witnessing increasing regulatory scrutiny with regards to hedge funds both in the US and Europe, and strongly believe that educating the marketplace on the nature, the specificities and the usage of alternative investments will contribute to providing further transparency, understanding and acceptance of hedge fund investment