Walkers, the global offshore law firm of choice for investment banks, international law firms, collateral managers, and other financial institutions, applauds the work done by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) in releasing its first report using data gathered by its new electronic reporting system. The Investment Statistics Digest, released earlier this week, provides an in-depth statistical review of Cayman Islands regulated funds for 2006 with aggregate statistics for 5,052 funds including their financial position, structure, investment strategies, subscription activity, fund administration, and investment management services.
"With total regulated funds passing the 9,500 mark in early 2008, CIMA's publication of the Investment Statistics Digest for each calendar year will provide industry stakeholders and international regulators with the most comprehensive assessment of the offshore hedge funds industry," said Mark Lewis, Senior Investment Funds Partner at Walkers and a member of CIMA's E- Reporting Working Group. "Cayman is already the clear jurisdiction of choice for the institutional hedge fund market. The successful introduction of E- Reporting and the meaningful flow of industry-relevant information will continue to set Cayman apart and will certainly continue to enhance Cayman's well-deserved reputation."
The report is based on information that CIMA has routinely required funds to submit as part of the regulator's ongoing oversight of the industry. However until the E-Reporting platform for funds was implemented in March 2007, CIMA did not have the ability to aggregate the data and report these statistics. The system has automated the submission and processing of the Fund Annual Return (FAR) and the annual financial statements from Cayman Islands regulated funds.
Some of the statistics that the digest revealed for the financial year ending 31 December 2006 include the following:-- The aggregate net asset value of the Cayman funds captured was US$1.387 trillion;-- New York had the largest concentration of net assets held by investment managers with US$388 billion or 28%;-- The UK, predominantly London, had the second largest concentration of net assets managed with a total of US$250 billion, or 18%;-- The proportion of funds suspending trading was extremely low at 0.1%;-- The Cayman Islands was the primary location for the provision of administration services to the funds;-- A master-feeder structure was used by 50% of the funds; and-- Sixty-one percent of the funds reporting had a minimum subscription of US$500,000 or more. The Investment Statistics Digest is also accompanied by a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), which explain in more detail how some of the statistics appearing in the digest were compiled and collated. To read the entire Investment Statistics Digest visit (Due to the length of the URL please copy and paste into your browser.) http://www.cimoney.com.ky/uploadedFiles/Publications/Investments_Statistical_Digest/2006STATISTICALDIGESTFINAL.pdf.
"E-Reporting has not only provided an enhanced regulatory tool but is helping CIMA, as the regulator, to further increase the transparency of the industry. To our knowledge, this is the first time that a regulator has published aggregate statistics of the kind presented in the digest," Cindy Scotland, CIMA's Managing Director, said in a statement. "It extends the range of data available on hedge funds, not just in the Cayman Islands but globally."