Speaking at the International Securities Lending Association (ISLA) 2015 conference in Lisbon, hedge fund panellists collectively argued that they are receiving conflicting messages over financing from their prime brokers, leaving them with a number of challenges in the post-Basel III environment. “It’s not just t

Few hedge fund markets can boast a 24% increase in Assets under Management (AuM) over the last year. However, this is exactly what the Israeli hedge fund market has done, with Tzur Management, a Tel Aviv-based fund administrator, estimating Israeli hedge funds grew from $2.66 billion in 2013 to $3.3 billion in Dece

The challenges facing hedge funds and the movement of their collateral are set to increase for a number of reasons. Firstly, the Dodd-Frank Act in the US and the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) are pushing more over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives into centralised clearing through central counterpart

For hedge funds, which rely on banks to provide leverage, offer securities loans and finance their trades, the incoming Basel III rules on banking sector capital, leverage and liquidity are starting to bite. “Banks are caught in a regulatory triangle of death,” says Phil Prince, head of Treasury at Pine River Cap

Last year Global Custodian featured an article titled “The Death of Prime Brokerage”. It mentioned that the prime brokerage model will be significantly threatened by Basel III and the incoming leverage ratio and capital rules. The result of this could mean not only ‘grave consequences’ for prime brokers but also fo

This year, and in 2014, capital introductions was rated the highest client priority in Global Custodian’s annual Prime Brokerage survey. The importance placed on this service, followed by access to borrowing securities and financing, comes at a time when constrained balance sheets, as a result of Basel III and the

Establishing a hedge fund is no longer a straightforward undertaking. It was not uncommon in the pre-crisis heyday of hedge fund investing to find a manager running a business with little more than a Bloomberg terminal and a telephone. Not that investors were that bothered with this copious lack of infrastructure.

The hedge fund industry is facing a number of challenges. Regulation in the form of AIFMD, EMIR, FATCA and Dodd-Frank have all increased the costs of running a hedge fund. This – coupled with the challenging capital raising environment and lacklustre performances – has piled enormous pressure on the hedge fund indu

Hedge funds face a critical juncture in the coming years as regulations and changing investor behaviour force them to rethink their business models. Global Custodian assembled a group of hedge fund managers for a roundtable discussion on what keeps them awake at night. • Chris Bentley is COO of Cairn Capital,

Markets know what they have to do, but building long term savings markets is proving neither quick nor easy. Click to read the survey

Equity assets under management have doubled for Indian mutual funds in the last twelve months, reflecting broader optimism among domestic retail investors. Click here to read this survey

The “original” Foreign Accounting Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) - the federal law enacted by United States Congress in 2010 to target non-compliant US taxpayers through reporting by foreign financial institutions (FFIs) and governments - is at the epicentre of this worldwide movement. Incongruous, say industry observ

Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, an initiative developed by the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx), the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) and China Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation (CSDCC), was rolled out in November 2014 to tremendous fanfare. The scheme now permits international investors

The outsourcing industry has learned that a good cultural fit between client and provider and communication and collaboration between both parties are most likely ingredients in making a deal succeed, according to a panel of practitioners at the SWIFT Business Forum. Given that not all outsourcing deals have gon

The Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) of South Africa recently transitioned its custody and recording keeping to Standard Bank in a deal involving R1.5 trillion ($127.8 billion) of assets. The most sought after mandate in the African custody market sees Standard engaging a rather unique fund on the continent