Hedge Fund Advisors Must File With FINRA

The SEC has designated FINRA as the agency to develop and maintain the registration system for hedge fund advisors.

Form PF, as it is known, helps the SEC understand a lot more about leverage, credit providers, investor concentration and fund performance. The regulator will share the information with the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which now monitors systemic risk. 

The new reporting system for Form PF would be an extension of the current FINRA system used to accept separate Form ADVs called the Investment Registration Depository (IARD) system. The $150 fee will be the same for quarterly and annual filers. 

Advisors to hedge funds with under $1 billion in assets will need to file a condensed version of Form PF annually while larger advisers will need to complete a longer more detailed version quarterly. In both cases, the SEC wants to know the value of assets under management, the amount of debt being used, counterparty credit risk exposure and performance for each fund.

"The Commission believes that FINRA, as the current operator of the IARD, is uniquely situated to develop and deploy the Form PF filing system in a timely manner," says the SEC in a recent notice outlining the filing fees which advisors must pay. The regulator will implement the fee unless it orders a hearing and any request for a hearing to dispute the fee must be requseted by October 21.

-- This article first appeared on Securities Technology Monitor.

 

 

 

 

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