INTERNATIONAL: IOSCO identifies Technical Committee`s work programme

Tuesday July 8 2008

IOSCO has today published a report detailing the work programme of its Technical Committee.

The Technical committee (TC) deals with areas such as trading venues, accountant and auditors, issuers and intermediaries; however what is of particular interest is the TC’s work within asset management.

Amongst other proposals the report advises that the TC will prepare high-level principles on funds of hedge funds by the end of 2008. This comes on top of AIMA’s press release to publish a global best practices guide for fund of hedge fund managers aimed at becoming a business tool for fund of hedge fund managers.

The issues that the TC has highlighted include:

* Private equity conflicts of interest

* Standardized benchmarks in presentation of fund performance

* Due diligence for investing in structured products

* Sovereign wealth funds

* Exchange Traded Funds

* Real estate funds

* Mutual recognition

* CIS valuation

* Elements of regulation for funds of hedge funds

* Soft commissions and incentives

* Point of sale disclosure to retail investors

Due to the ever increasing popularity of hedge funds and their influence on the global market, IOSCO has prioritised its work on hedge funds and alternative investments.