CEO Blog: 100 days on

By Jack Inglis, CEO, AIMA

Published: 04 June 2014

It is now over 100 days since I took on the CEO role at AIMA and thus high time I delivered a report! In short it has been a rewarding and productive period which has helped shape my ideas for AIMA’s future strategy and our ongoing value to members. I have been determined to meet with as many of our members, staff and volunteer committees as possible. In addition I have sought to meet with policymakers and regulators in every region. To this end, in addition to Europe, I have visited New York and Washington DC (twice), Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Tokyo, Toronto (as in the photo above, where I helped to open a session of the Toronto Stock Exchange), Montreal and Grand Cayman, and later this month I will be returning to China.

I am very grateful to all the members I’ve met and for all the constructive comments and ideas they have shared about AIMA and the hedge fund industry. The one thing about being new to a role is that nobody is shy about offering opinions! The good news is that AIMA seems to be getting it largely right, although within that there are always things we could be doing better, so I encourage regular feedback from all our members. I am also delighted to have welcomed three new directors to the AIMA Council^[1]. I am assisted greatly by the guidance of this group and these new directors from eminent manager firms bring additional strength to our governance.

While AIMA staff and our many member committees and working groups around the world remain busy on multiple fronts, regulatory or otherwise, we have not always done the best job of communicating the positive outcomes arising from these efforts to our broad membership base. What has impressed me most is the calibre and commitment of our committee volunteers who give so much of their time and expertise to our activities. This is the real strength of our organisation and we owe it to them that their work does not go unnoticed. You can expect to see more from us by way of explanation of what we are doing and the benefits it brings.

My visits to our various National Groups have brought home to me the diversity of our local organisations. Each one is different and has its own particular characteristics, reflecting the differences in content and structure of the local industry. Cayman is obviously a centre of excellence for the offshore service provider community. Our Asia Pacific groups in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan & Australia all have keen manager membership and China presents an exciting opportunity for the industry. The local industry in Canada is growing and there is clearly a powerful investor presence there. In all these countries, our staff and volunteers continue to cement AIMA’s position as a respected voice of the industry and a trusted partner of local policymakers and regulators. A key focus for me is to better harness our local strengths and activities to achieve a more cohesive and consistent service at wider regional and global levels.

The US, as the largest hedge fund community, continues to be our fastest-growing jurisdiction in terms of members and these now make up over 50% of the aggregate AUM of our global membership. Many of our larger US members have physical presences in all three regions so it is particularly important that AIMA can deliver comparable and connected services in these three places. We will continue to boost our presence in the US.

I was pleased to host our annual AIMA Global Policy and Regulatory Forum in New York for the first time. We had a strong turnout of senior regulators from many global agencies and AIMA members as they came together in March for a lively discussion^[2] on whether hedge funds could possibly be categorised as shadow banks.

The ongoing review into potential systemic risk within the asset management sector by FSB/IOSCO and the FSOC prompted our academic paper on the importance of capital markets^[3] as well as follow up articles written by us in the press (including pieces in EU Reporter^[4], HFMWeek^[5] and the HFI Global Review^[6]). There is more to come from us as we conduct research to demonstrate the economic benefits of specific hedge fund strategies in credit and activist equity. This will help educate policymakers as they review further asset management regulation.

I am eager to expand the range of our published research in fostering better understanding for key hedge fund stakeholders, namely investors and regulators. In April, we published Apples and Apples: How to better understand hedge fund performance^[7], which has received widespread coverage (e.g. Hedge Funds Review^[8], Forbes^[9], AllAboutAlpha.com^[10] and Pensions & Investments^[11]).

I also remain committed to improving understanding of our industry in the media and to be ready to address misconceptions as they arise. We continue to brief privately as well as write publicly. Early on I gave an interview to EuroHedge^[12] and we have also written recently in Financial News^[13](about systemic risk) and on capital markets (as above). We have now created a new “media coverage” section on the global AIMA website^[14].

Specifically on the regulatory and compliance front, AIFMD is well in to the implementation phase and we have recently published updated tools and planners for members to navigate this complex Directive^[15]. We have also embarked on a programme to update and augment our full suite of sound practice guides and DDQs. Members will also have noticed that we are holding a series of FATCA webinars to help meet the fast-approaching compliance date. Amongst other priority items are the need still to address the cross-border aspects of derivatives reform to ensure that managers are not put in an impossible compliance position when the European clearing obligation goes live, and also to prepare our response to the lengthy MiFID II discussion paper.

One of our working committees that I have most enjoyed getting to know is our Investor Steering Committee. This comprises a group of 20+ senior representatives from large global allocators. They bring vital insights to our work and contribute greatly to better understanding. Among their current projects is a guide which, we hope, will be used to educate trustees who often question the role of hedge funds in portfolios.

Finally, I am asked frequently about how AIMA works alongside other associations and most notably the MFA. I have held very collaborative discussions with them and am confident we can deliver a non-duplicative and complementary service to those members of both.

Above all, it is critical we align our resources to our members' requirements and so I shall continue to listen to all that our members say and provide regular updates on how we are doing.

Best regards,

Jack

Footnotes