State Street Corporate

Through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), countries in the region are enhancing regional cooperation and cohesion. While they are making progress, challenges remain. This report highlights the opportunities ASEAN offers, outlines recent financial initiatives in the region and presents some of the challenges ahead for integration to succeed.

The increased focus on risk management frameworks as part of the UCITS IV direction creates significant complexity but also opportunities for asset managers to gain competitive advantage. This Vision paper explores ways for asset managers to manage the requirements while underscoring their commitment to risk management and transparency.

Global regulatory reforms promise to significantly impact investors in the derivatives market, ushering in important changes in clearing, trade execution, collateral management and investment operations, among other areas. While there are still many unknowns, investors will need to prepare themselves to adapt to an evolving and considerably altered investment landscape.

Institutional investors once preoccupied largely with fund performance now take great interest in the manner by which hedge funds manage operational infrastructure, choose administrators and provide governance centered on best practices.  Bearing this in mind, the hedge fund industry is reinventing business models and best practices, with investor-friendly policies designed to enhance fund transparency, liquidity and efficient operations.  Investors, fund managers and regulators alike are looking to third-party fund administrators to provide objective risk assessment and reporting.