David Travers, the chief executive of State Street’s regional investor services business, has joined the governing committee of the Australian chapter of the Alternative Investment Managers Association.

He is the only representative of a service provider organization on the committee, although the funds management arm of State Street, State Street Global Advisors, has hedge funds. Hedge fund managers have for a long time been critical of the major third-party administrators and custodians for being difficult to access until their funds become very large. This has provided opportunities for smaller specialist providers, such as Fortis, HSBC (Hong Kong) and Citco. However, in recent years the majors, particularly State Street, have looked to increase their share of the hedge fund administration market. State Street has about a dozen hedge fund clients in Australia. JP Morgan has also launched a new administration service for hedge funds in the region and is looking to expand this in Australia.