Description
The near collapse and recapitalisation of Long Term Capital Management, in August 1998, was an event of such global significance that it transformed the previously rather low profile hedge fund industry into a media whipping boy. It then became then subject of a protracted period of intense scrutiny by governments and financial regulators, and navel gazing by the industry itself. Since then, many reports have been published on the subject of the regulation of hedge funds and there are currently two bills before Congress dealing with hedge funds and financial disclosure.
Meanwhile, the industry itself has continued to expand, with new funds being set up every day and with new modes of trading, including Internet based trading and on exchange trading, being developed.
The original idea for this Special Report arose in response to the LTCM affair, but while there are several chapters devoted to a detailed examination and analysis of the case and its regulatory aftermath, both in the U.S. and the U.K., the Report also provides a comprehensive survey of the many legal issues that affect hedge fund managers, advisers, prime brokers, counterparties, custodians and investors in the many jurisdictions worldwide in which hedge funds are domiciled. The Report covers structure and documentation of funds; marketing of funds in Europe; the impact of U.S. law and regulation on offshore funds; U.S. insolvency law; E.U. and OECD tax and regulatory policy; money laundering; the role of prime brokers and Irish domiciled funds, and fraud and investor protection in hedge funds investments in the U.S. and U.K.
The authors include senior practitioners and academics from the U.S. and U.K. and we hope that this work will prove useful to practitioners, regulators, compliance officers, brokers, financial advisers, accountants, bankers and academics in the fields of law, finance and economics.
