Hedge Funds

In the entire financial services arena, the sector showing the most growth is clearly the area of hedge funds. While brokerage commissions continue to decline, investment banking fees start to come under pressure and the entire financial services industry worries about intensified regulatory scrutiny, the hedge fund industry with its rapid growth stands out from the crowd. The amount of money under management with hedge funds has gone up four times between 1996 and 2004 and is expected to further triple between now and 2010 to over $2.7 trillion. FSL is moving with this industry trend and in the near future will be maintaining Hedge Fund data.

FSL is already able to identify more than 5,000 Hedge Funds and is also currently researching data vendors who could potentially expand on this valuable base. However there are obstacles but FSL is continually aiming to overcome these! Firstly, while hedge funds are a rapidly growing part of the financial industry, the fact that they operate through private placements and restrict share ownership to rich individuals and institutions frees them from most disclosure and regulation requirements that apply to mutual funds and banks. Funds legally domiciled outside the main financial market countries are generally subject to even less regulation. Secondly defining and describing hedge funds is further complicated by the fact that other investors engage in many of the same practices. Both these reasons pose data gathering difficulties.