AIMA

13 March 2007

London, 13 March 2007: The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), the leading global hedge fund and alternative investment industry association today announced that it had made a submission to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on their proposed new rules concerning anti-fraud and accredited investors.

In its submission to the SEC, AIMA welcomed the Commission’s initiative to reduce the likelihood of investors falling victim to fraud but raised some concern about the scope of the proposed rules and the ‘extra-territorial’ reach of the Commission.

Amongst those concerns is the possibility of the SEC exercising an unreasonable amount of power and oversight as to disclosure of ‘side letters’ and also as to some of the proposed criteria to be used to measure individuals’ wealth. In addition, AIMA suggests that the threshold for an ‘accredited natural person’ should be a percentage of that person’s overall investable assets, rather than a minimum monetary investment level.

Commenting on the submission, AIMA Director Mary Richardson said, “Hedge funds outside the US are usually fully regulated by their own national authority and we do not agree that the Commission should seek to exercise further global reach, as they propose.

We are also concerned about the differences in definitions of investor eligibility amongst US statutory or regulatory provisions and hope that this consultation exercise will encourage more standard definitions of eligibility.”

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For further information, please contact Eoin Brophy, Hume Brophy Communications on +44 (0)20 7499 8736.

1. About AIMA

As the only truly representative global hedge fund association, AIMA, the Alternative Investment Management Association, has over 1,100 corporate members worldwide, based in 46 countries.

Members include leading hedge fund managers, fund of hedge funds managers, prime brokers, legal and accounting services and fund administrators.  They all benefit from AIMA’s active influence in policy development, its leadership in industry initiatives, including education and sound practice manuals and its excellent reputation with regulators, worldwide.

AIMA is a dynamic organisation that reflects its membership’s interests and provides them with a vibrant global network.

AIMA is committed to developing industry skills and education standards and is a co-founder of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designation (CAIA) – the industry’s first and only specialised educational standard for alternative investment specialists. For further information, please visit AIMA’s website www.aima.org

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