Nephila joins hedge fund standards body as signatory member

Nephila Capital, one of the leading investment managers in the insurance-linked securities and reinsurance linked asset space, has joined a hedge fund standards setting body as a signatory member. The Hedge Funds Standards Board (HFSB) brings together managers, investors, regulators and consultants from across the hedge fund industry to help determine the best operating model and rules for the industry.

The HFSB has over 76 hedge fund managers on board who have committed to the Standards, between them this accounts for $260 billion in assets under management. Sixty major institutional investors, including pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowment funds and fund of funds, have also signed up as members of the HFSB’s Investor Chapter, to help drive adoption of the standards.

“As part of the application process, we performed an in-depth, gap analysis of the firm’s control structure in areas including disclosure, valuation, operational risk, governance, risk management and shareholder conduct,” said  Steve Glassman, Chief Compliance Officer with Nephila. “This process was very beneficial to the firm and we expect it to provide an on-going benefit as each member of the HFSB is required to commit and conform to the standards on an annual basis.”

This is good for Nephila Capital’s investors who can be sure that the manager, who now has around $7 billion of insurance and reinsurance linked assets under management making them the largest of their kind, is adhering to a set of published standards. It’s also good for the ILS and reinsurance sector as there is now another voice within the standards board (Fermat Capital Management are also a signatory) who can speak up on behalf of investment managers in the catastrophe and reinsurance space.