U.S. hedge funds aren’t the only ones facing a potential new registration requirement: Their peers in Singapore are also likely to lose their licensing exemption in Singapore, according to a top industry organization.
While hedge funds that have 30 or fewer clients—all of them “qualified”—do not currently need a capital-markets services license, that is likely to change, according to Michael Coleman, who heads the Alternative Investment Management Association branch in the city-state.
“Almost certainly there will be a move away from the current exempt regime to some form of licensing,” he told Bloomberg News. “Hopefully, those changes will be well thought through and won’t damage the industry, which I’m very confident they wont.”
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has not said changes in its hedge fund regulation scheme were imminent, but Coleman said that AIMA is “in dialogue” with the central bank.
“To move from very light regulation to high regulation will mean some additional costs; the MAS understands those issues,” Coleman said. “We’re very confident that the potential cost burden will be modest and won’t damage the industry.”
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