Bermuda Attracting Interest From Global Hedge Funds

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

02 July 2004

Returning from the recent 2004 Global Alternative Investment Management conference (GAIM), Deborah Middleton of the Bermuda International Business Association reported that the world’s hedge fund industry is starting to take notice of the island as a fund domicile, the Bermuda Sun reports.

“One of the things we found very gratifying at GAIM was we had people from all over the world and there was a huge amount of interest in Bermuda,” observed Ms Middleton, CEO of BIBA, according to the Sun.

She added: “When they want to start to be more sophisticated then they start choosing Bermuda. It is very similar to the insurance sector where if you want to set up a standard captive you might go to Cayman or BVI, but if you want to set up a really sophisticated insurance company you come to Bermuda.”

“We’re seeing the same sort of thing with the funds and that is something we really want to capitalize on,” she explained.

In June 2003, net assets from hedge funds and mutual funds in Bermuda stood at a reported $89 billion. By June 2004 this had grown 30% to $115 billion.

Ms Middleton attributed much of this growth to Bermuda’s high regulatory standards, which have been in place in the jurisdiction for a number of years.

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