Confluence Technologies Inc., a provider of fund administration automation, recently published a White Paper titled “Hedge Fund Reporting: The Change Imperative.”  The theme of the paper is that a variety of forces – investor demands for greater transparency; the prospect of increased regulatory oversight; new accounting mandates; and the concerns of asset managers themselves – have placed extraordinary pressure upon hedge fund administration to report more frequently, more thoroughly and with greater flexibility than ever before.  The paper’s authors, Confluence Senior Market Analyst Scott Powell and Director of Marketing Joan Tesla, call this gathering of forces a “perfect storm” for hedge fund administration.  The Hedge Fund Law Report spoke to Scott Powell about the report and some of the issues on which it touches, including (but not limited to): the appropriate level of transparency; the automation of reporting systems; the role of auditing firms; the convergence of U.S. and European accounting standards; the costs of third-party administration; and the new XBRL reporting language.  The full interview is included in this issue of the Hedge Fund Law Report.