The London Stock Exchange is to launch a new market in November, aimed at the institutional investors and with lighter regulation to attract hedge funds and private equity funds from rivals such as NYSE Euronext. The new Specialist Fund Market will fill the gap between the main market and the LSE’s more lightly regulated Alternative Investment Market. The Specialist Fund Market aims to meet demand from both issuers and institutional and other sophisticated investors for a quotation on a regulated market in London that provides sufficient flexibility for specialist vehicles such as single-strategy hedge funds and private equity vehicles. The market will be flagged as being for professional investors, although this will not stop retail investors from accessing funds listed on it. Last week the UK’s regulator, the Financial Services Authority, said that alternative investment funds would no longer be able to take advantage of a secondary listing regime under Chapter 14 of the UK's listing rules once a new unified regime for the listing of investment entities is in place early next year. The new market will impose the minimum regulatory standards prescribed by the European Union's Consolidated Admissions and Reporting Directive, as does the Chapter 14 route to admission on the Main Market, which will be abolished when the FSA introduces a new unified regime for listings.