Managing changes made to the hedge fund regulatory system are proving to be one of the industry’s biggest headaches, a new survey has found.

New York-based accounting software specialists TKS solutions found that the five biggest obstacles facing hedge fund managers are: regulations on reporting requirements; providing enhanced transparency; calculating and reporting multiple fund-ownership percentages per-investor; providing liquidity for nervous investors and streamlining staffing requirements.

In short, hedge funds are having to provide more complex breakdowns to regulators and more finely priced options for investors using fewer staff. Hence the report suggests hedge funds are looking to update their software.

According to the authors of the report, "brute force deployments of small armies of staff armed with spreadsheets are no longer an option for handling the many complexities of investment partnership and shareholder accounting. Instead, many CFOs are turning to sophisticated investor accounting systems and are updating their systems more frequently."