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Hasan Aslan Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: Delegates at the recent Opalesque Geneva Roundtable discussed the state of affairs of the local hedge fund industry; fewer managers, the regulatory or funding difficulties faced by new and smaller hedge funds, banks’ evolving approach to investing in alternatives, the rise of liquid alternatives, and investors’ preference for external managers over deposit banks.
"On the supply side, many competitors have disappeared or moved to other cities while the new Swiss regulations for asset managers (LPCC or
CISA) have changed the landscape dramatically," says Cédric Kohler, Head of Advisory at Fundana, a Swiss-based independent asset manager.
But investors, faced with a yield of about 2.5% in a classical allocation, have not choice but to look for additional sources of return, and turn to alternative strategies. "Just to give you a sense, we have grown from January 2013 from $850 million AuM to $1.2 billion now without doing some major innovation," he says, as investors are attracted to his company’s team and products stability.
"It is now very difficult for this industry to operate in Switzerland," he notes. "We have had a tsunami of regulations whether it’s the U.S. one (FATCA), the European one (AIFMD), or the Swiss one (CISA). And making things worse is the fact that FINMA (the Swiss regulator equivalent to the SEC) has taken the view ...................... To view our full article Click here
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