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1 Jul 2009

Hedge Fund Survey On Obama Regulations

A survey by RSM McGladrey, a financial services consultancy, found that hedge fund managers are surprisingly ready to work with SEC regulators to cooperate with authority, despite wide-spread wariness about over-excessive regulation from the Obama administration.

However, the Obama financial regulatory plan was a top concern with 75%, fearing that further regulation will go too far and stifle the market’s recovery.

The survey polled more than 100 hedge fund managers during the last month and focused on hedge fund industry sentiment toward the Obama administration regulation.

Nearly half of the respondents (42%) thought that the SEC should be given more regulatory authority than it currently has. Slightly less (37%) felt that the hedge fund industry should be subject to more direct regulatory authority.

Fund managers are also optimistic about the industry’s prospects, according to the survey. 60% believe the current environment provides more investment opportunities than challenges. An overwhelming majority (69%) see the U.S. economy returning to positive growth by Q2 2010.

Hedge fund managers' opinion on the Public Private Investment Program (PPIP), showed nearly 80% of fund managers believe there can be a successful market for toxic assets, such as underwater mortgage backed securities. However, only 33% of the funds speculated that they would be at all interested in purchasing these securities in the future, raising some concerns about the level of private investor participation.

The full report is available for download on the RSM McGladrey Web site.

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