<body.content> <block> <p>NEW YORK, Oct. 2 /PRNewswire/ — The Staff of the Investment Management Division of the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a report on Monday,September 29th 2003 titled “Implications of the Growth of Hedge Funds”. In its Report, the Staff concluded that “the Commission should consider requiring hedge fund advisors to register as InvestmentAdvisors under the Advisors Act”. In a very recent study, Value Improvement Associates arrived at compelling arguments why the SEC Staff’s approach was unworkable.</p> <p>ValueImprovement Associates (VIA) has recently completed an extensive, independent study on the drivers, costs and benefits of hedge fund regulation. The study included leaders from hedge funds,broker/dealers, prime brokers, investment companies, investment advisors, institutional investors, public employee pension investors, former regulators, securities industry groups, securitiescounsel, risk managers and academics. The VIA study concluded that investor protection would not be improved by registration and examination and that the proposed approach would greatly tax the SEC’salready thinly stretched resources without measurable public benefit. VIA suggested instead that much more severe sanctions on wrongdoing, combined with high-profile, targeted reviews of areas wherethere exist today major conflicts of interest among regulated entities, would be a more productive approach.</p> <p>Other recommendations suggested by the SEC Staff regarding investoreducation, adoption of best practices, and opening the availability of hedge funds to retail investors on a limited, controlled basis are supported by VIA’s analysis.</p> <p>ABOUT VALUEIMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATES LLC</p> <p>Value Improvement Associates (VIA) is an independent firm, with no commercial or other ties to any company, industry group, political party or PAC. Itspartners have an average of 25 years experience in the financial services industry, and have held senior positions in financial services firms, regulatory agencies, vendors and major consulting firmsin New York, London and Tokyo. VIA’s business focus is predominantly the capital markets, including research on areas where public policy and the capital markets intersect, and management consultancyin strategy, corporate governance, revenue enhancement, cost reduction and risk management.</p> <p style=”pre” id=”pre1″> CONTACT:
William G. Salter, Managing Director
Value Improvement Associates LLC
212-292-4453 Voice
212-461-2223 Fax
<virtloc idsrc=”dummy” value=”dummy”>wsalter@valueimprovement.com</virtloc>
<a>http://www.valueimprovement.com/</a>
</p> <p>This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit</p> <p><a>http://www.ereleases.com/</a>. </p> <p>Website: http://www.valueimprovement.com </p> <datasource>Value Improvement Associates LLC</datasource> </block> <block class=”contact”> <p>CONTACT: William G. Salter, Managing Director of Value Improvement<br/>Associates LLC, +1-212-292-4453, or fax, +1-212-461-2223, or<br/><virtloc idsrc=”dummy” value=”dummy”>wsalter@valueimprovement.com</virtloc> </p> </block> </body.content>
