On November 3, 2009, the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) reiterated its support for the registration of hedge fund managers operating in the U.S. and for the reporting of systemically relevant information by larger managers to national authorities in the interest of financial stability.  The following day, the Financial Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, by a vote of 41 to 28, approved a bill that would impose a registration mandate, The Private Fund Investment Advisers Act of 2009, sponsored by Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA).  See “U.S. House of Representatives Holds Hearings on Hedge Fund Adviser Registration,” Hedge Fund Law Report, Vol. 2, No. 42 (Oct. 21, 2009); “House Subcommittee Considers Bill Requiring U.S. Hedge Fund Advisers with Over $30 Million in Assets Under Management to Register with SEC,” Hedge Fund Law Report, Vol. 2, No. 41 (Oct. 15, 2009).  The Hedge Fund Law Report recently interviewed Todd Groome, who since December 2008 has served as Non-Executive Chairman of the AIMA.  (Before assuming his current role, Groome was an Advisor in the Monetary and Capital Markets Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).)  Our interview focused on topics including: the range of appropriate information for financial reports to national authorities; the capacity of administrators to analyze and act on that information; the disproportionate costs of compliance with reporting requirements for smaller managers; the need to preserve the confidentiality of the information (in its pre-aggregated form) that may be reported by managers; the sources of systemic risk and how to mitigate it; the sharing of information among national authorities; the development of an official multi-national information template; the threat of a tax-driven flight of talent and capital from London; sound practices for hedge fund administrators; the continued viability of an in-house administration option; and the policy or politics behind last year’s bans on short selling in the financial services industry in both the U.S. and the U.K.  The first half of the full transcript of that interview is included in this issue of the Hedge Fund Law Report.  The remainder of the full transcript will be included in a subsequent issue.