The Dubai Financial Services Authority has issued a draft Hedge Fund Code for public comment. Consultation Paper No. 50 and the Code are intended to introduce best practice standards for the hedge fund industry in the Dubai International Financial Centre under nine high level principles. The code builds upon the legal requirements applicable to all collective investment funds in the DIFC and delivers on a promise made by the DFSA to develop such a code after the first year of operation of the collective investment funds regime. Ian Johnston, DFSA managing director of Policy and Legal Services, said: “We thought it appropriate to develop best practice standards under high level principles, rather than detailed rules. We selected nine areas of risk which are more specific to hedge fund operations than to other types of Collective Investment Funds. “This approach is consistent with the DFSA’s risk-based approach to regulation and gives the industry the flexibility to develop their own practices within the framework set by the principles,” he said. The public consultation period closes on 4 October 2007 and the DFSA plans to introduce the code in the first quarter of 2008.