Hedge-fund startups adapt to MAS rules

Singapore

WHEN Gaurav Bansal's lawyers told him about Singapore's tightened hedge-fund rules introduced in August 2012, he faced the prospect of spiralling costs to meet the demands for starting his own fund.

The solution was to sign up with Swiss-Asia Financial Services Pte, which provides infrastructure, office space and services to meet compliance requirements and is licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

"The regulatory change threw a spanner in the works," said Mr Bansal, 40, who started his Salmon Global Fund with US$4 million of assets in March under the Swiss-Asia Financial umbrella. "They really came to my rescue."

Mr Bansal is among managers of smaller startup funds in Singapore, Asia's biggest hedge-fund hub after Hong Kong, who are turning to such platforms to reduce costs. Swiss-Asia Financial signed up 20 managers seeking to start their own funds in the past nine months, while the number of new funds set up more than doubled to seven last year at Go…