Bahrain Establishes Hedge Fund Rules

The Central Bank of Bahrain has established new regulations for collective investment undertakings (CIU), which cover hedge funds, derivatives and other alternative investments, along with mutual funds, lawandtax-news.com reports. The bank will issue the new regulations later this month. They will require hedge funds to register.

The rules also cover collective investment undertakings aimed at professional investors. Such products will be exempt from some of the rules as long as they are only sold to institutional and high-net-worth investors.

“The CIU regulations address a critical, growing and highly dynamic segment of Bahrain’s financial sector—the funds industry,” said Abdul Rahman Al Baker, executive director, financial institutions supervision, at the Central Bank of Bahrain. “This new category will significantly facilitate the development of products totally different from plain-vanilla products and aimed at professional investors.”

There are currently only 100 locally domiciled funds in Bahrain, but 2,000 others from outside countries have been authorized to be sold.