On February 17, the Hedge Fund Standards Board (HFSB) published a revised version of its Standards.

In its accompanying announcement, the HFSB stated that the purpose of the changes was to make the standards more suitable for non-EU managers — particularly those in the U.S. and Asia with a different governance structure. In this regard, the key change involves strengthening fund governance requiring investors to have a vote on significant issues unless the fund has an independent governing body.

The standards have also been strengthened in a number of areas in the light of the financial crisis, including investor disclosures, risk management, valuation and safeguards to prevent market abuse.

Existing HFSB signatories will need to review their approach to complying with the standards, and may need to adapt their disclosure statements. To give signatories time to carry out this exercise, the revised standards will not come into force until September 1, 2012.

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