The Alternative Investment Management Association isn’t taking any chances. After applauding the Securities and Exchange Commission for not appealing to save its hedge fund registration rule, and urging the SEC to assure it won’t introduce new rules to require foreign funds to register, the AIMA warns the commission to get it right this time, or else. The association says if ongoing discussions with SEC fail to produce the desired result – namely, to spare foreign funds from registering with the SEC – it would call in the big guns, in the form of the European Commission, to apply pressure on the agency, and would also enlist AIMA chapters in Asia, especially in Australia and Hong Kong, to lobby on behalf of the worldwide hedge fund industry. “The requirement for dual registration, imposed by no other regulator worldwide, was unnecessary, expensive, led to complex issues for managers having to comply with very different sets of rules and created a non-level playing field,” said AIMA Executive Director Florence Lombard. Bear in mind, however, this is just the back up plan; AIMA still intends to use its power of persuasion to get what it wants.
