The global association representing certified financial analysts, the CFA Institute, is establishing an advocacy centre in Hong Kong to cove...

The global association representing certified financial analysts, the CFA Institute, is establishing an advocacy centre in Hong Kong to cover the Asia-Pacific region. Advocacy centres are also to be set up in New York, Charlottesville in Virginia and London.

Lee Kha-Loon will head the Asia-Pacific group from his base in Kuala Lumpur. He formerly worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers, Standard Chartered Bank and the Malaysian Securities Commission. The CFA Institute is looking for candidates to serve as policy advisors in Hong Kong.

Separately, the CFA is set to introduce new standards to the hedge fund industry. According to the Institute's New York-based managing director, Kurt Schacht, the organisation is drawing up new guidelines as part of the wider response to recent corporate and investment scandals.

Although the institute supports the US regulator, the SEC’s policy of requiring hedge funds to register as investment advisors from 2006 it believes that hedge fund registration is unlikely to prevent fraud from taking place, and argues that an industry code of conduct and self-regulation would be more effective than tougher government-led regulation.

The new code of conduct is based on the following principles: better disclosure and valuation practices; improved disclosure by managers to ensure that they follow the fund's stated objectives; more measures to support best execution; the compulsory appointment by hedge funds of a compliance officer; and more transparent literature to advise investors of a fund's fee structure, performance and trade allocations.