KARACHI, Nov 26: International financial institutions have increased their exposure to hedge funds which grown from $50 billion in 1990 to $900 billion to date.

This was stated by a leading financial expert Dr Assem Safiuddin, Associate Professor of finance at the American University of Beirut and Harvard University Summer School, in a lecture here on Friday.

The lecture was organized by Pakistan Society of Investment Professionals at the CFA Charters Award ceremony to those investment professionals who completed three levels of chartered financial analysts.

Mr Safiuddin said that these funds were expected to exceed $2.3 trillion by 2008 as leading financial institutions were preferring to hedge funds as an alternative to private equity, venture capital and real estate.

He noted that little regulatory oversight, strategic flexibility available to managers and rising volatility in the markets were the major reasons behind this rapid growth. This asset class, however, did not exist in Pakistan, he observed.

PICIC Managing Director Muhammad Ali Khoja in his keynote address said that total bank and DFIs deposits in Pakistan were estimated at about $33 billion and about $15 billion with national saving schemes of the government which is 20 per cent of the GDP. -APP