Behind every billionaire there is a story!

Hedge Fund Manager Simons Calls for Rating Compan

Bond investors including Pacific Investment Management Co. and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System should sponsor a new non-profit rating company to focus on derivative securities, according to hedge fund manager James Simons of Renaissance Technologies Inc.“Congress might consider chartering such an organization, having board representation from appropriate regulators. Revenues could come from buyer-paid fees,” Simons, 70, said in written testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in Washington. “These complex instruments then would be subject to proper analysis and rating.”

Billionaire hedge fund managers including George Soros of Soros Fund Management LLC in New York, Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group LLC in Chicago and Simons appeared before Congress today to defend their industry’s practices and suggest ways to repair the financial system after the world’s largest banks and insurers recorded writedowns and losses of $954 billion in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

“I do believe in the value of these new products, but the organizations rating them must owe their allegiance to buyers, not issuers,” Simons said

read the rest published by Bloomberg here:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aX9zUJRE9E9g