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Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva:

Sound Fund Advisors released a white paper on fund governance trends, after collecting data on more than 2,100 Cayman hedge fund boards for the past six years. According to the paper, the data shows a trend toward stronger governance.

In 2016, external directors served on almost 90% of funds and were a majority on 73% of fund boards. Furthermore, almost half the funds now have a profile that includes two external directors and one internal director. External directors are often hired from different firms. However, fund boards of US managers continue to lack directors with investment or risk background.

US managers tend to prefer US-based professionals on staff. "While most the funds continue to be serviced offshore, the trend toward hiring local directors for US-based managers is significant and likely to accelerate in the future," the paper says.

At pre-launch, most managers place the CIO or a portfolio manager as the internal director. At post-launch, board turnover remained relatively robust, especially among the larger funds. More than half of those changes were to swap out an existing external director for a new external director.

Separately, some hedge fund investors who spoke to Reuters in recent weeks remain wary of directors serving too many clients.

"As a director serves more and more funds it&......................

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