New Orleans is (in)famous for being a party town that seems to inhabit a parallel universe — what happens on Bourbon Street usually stays there, however wild. Not so, however, in America’s fast-expanding private capital world.
On Wednesday, the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit US Court of Appeals ruled in favour of six private equity and hedge fund groups to toss out a transparency rule introduced last year by Securities and Exchange Commission. This had required private equity, hedge fund and real estate groups to start issuing quarterly performance and fee reports, perform annual audits, and to stop giving some investors preferential treatment over redemptions and special access to portfolio holdings.
Such concepts have long been standard in public markets. But they are anathema to many powerful private capital players. Wednesday’s ruling has thus sparked jubilation among many financiers — and dismay from progressives and consumer protection groups.