ICI extends reach with global launch

The Investment Company Institute is going global, launching a trade organization that looks at regulatory, market and other issues related to international funds, managers and investors. ICI Global, which will be based in London, will include regulated U.S. and non-U.S. based funds that are publicly offered to investors worldwide. “ICI Global will seek to advance the common interests and promote public understanding of global investment funds, their managers and their investors as market and regulatory issues increasingly cross borders,” said Paul Schott Stevens, the ICI's president and chief executive. The new trade group “will build upon and expand ICI's long-standing international advocacy on issues that affect millions of investors worldwide,” he added. International regulatory veteran Dan Waters will be managing director of ICI Global. He spent 12 years at the United Kingdom's Financial Services Authority, where he directed asset management policy. “Global funds and fund managers face a complex array of regulatory and policy challenges,” Mr. Waters said. “Finding appropriate global solutions for these challenges requires the capacity to look beyond national and regional approaches to focus on genuine, value-adding global answers.” The ICI Global's steering committee with be led by Jamie Broderick, head of J.P. Morgan Asset Management in Europe. The trade group's policy priorities and purposes fall into several broad categories, including the role of funds and fund managers in financial stability, and global trading and market structure policy developments. “ICI Global responds to a rapidly growing transnational environment for global investment funds,” Mr. Broderick said. “As financial markets converge and funds' activities become more global, regulators are increasingly coordinating their efforts internationally. Funds need a strong and informed source on issues that cross borders to inform the policy agenda worldwide.” The global trade group will draw from ICI's Washington-based resources, including legal, regulatory, research, communications and fund industry operations teams. ICI's U.S. member funds serve more than 90 million investors and manage $12.5 trillion, representing 98% of the U.S. fund market and nearly half of the $25.6 trillion global fund market.