As reported this week, hedge funds are concerned about inevitable government regulation and they’re using comms more to talk about the industry.

Conrad Capital Management Consultants (CCM) has introduced the Independent Verification and Operational Review (IVOR). The tool is an on-site, independent audit and operational analysis that detects fraudulent processes and procedures. According to Ron Pateka, a director with CCM, hedge funds are first “apprehensive” about the procedure, but ultimately see the value of it and appreciate the tips that CCM offers for tightening up a hedge fund’s business.

“[Hedge funds] are trying to rest people’s fears, so they’ve hired an outside company to make sure they’re doing everything correctly,” said Donald Conrad, president of the company. “We want to try and help clean up what’s going on.”

The company says most hedge funds are doing things properly, but Pateka says they have found “discrepancies with valuing the portfolio that they didn’t agree with” at some organizations. CCM has been in touch with the Securities and Exchange Commission to propose IVOR as a road map for regulatory decisions.

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at Ben Bernanke’s PR campaign and how it has placed him in the “starring role” as he tries to clearly communcate the Federal Reserve’s role, the paper .

According to Reuters, the Fed is reworking its communications strategy, as part of a transparency push that may include regular news conferences and increased availability of information, possibly online.

In recent months, Bernanke has discussed the economic crisis to audiences ranging from college students and the general public to the media and Congress, and he tells the WSJ: “‘I think it is important for the public to understand what is going on and to know that the government is trying to solve the problem … They should know we have a plan and a strategy.”‘

Yet, the paper also notes that Bernanke may placing himself at the heart of the PR effort to ensure his position as chairman of the Federal Reserve is secure. Within the year, President Barack Obama will decide whether or not to reappoint Bernanke.

Criticism of AIG’s hiring of PR firms just won’t die. Rachel Maddow and Breakingviews recently took critical looks at the company’s agency roster given its federal funding. This time, it comes in the form of an article from Time: “Is AIG spending too much on public relations?” The author points to recent comments from members of Congress that question “the firm’s p.r. payroll,” as well as a lawyer of former AIG chairman Hank Greenberg. AIG’s SVP of comms, Nick Ashooh - who made PRWeek’s people with the “toughest jobs in PR” 2008 list - broke down the responsibilities of its PR firms to Time.

AIG retained only one full-time p.r. firm when it ruled the insurance world. Today’s four firms, said Ashooh, have different missions: Sard Verbinnen & Co. helps to structure statements on the bailout, Kekst & Co. focuses on sales of assets to pay back federal loans, Burson-Marsteller handles controversial issues and Hill & Knowlton fields inquiries from Capitol Hill and prepares congressional testimony for company officials. “If the criticism was we were running image-advertising or doing sponsorships to make ourselves look better, I could see that,” Ashooh said. “But we’re doing a lot of information-processing. It’s really been just responding to inquiries” from Congress and the media.

Good news today, given the abysmal state of the M&A business. Homebuilders had agreed to a $1.3 billion merger were accompanied by a variety of comms initiatives. A Web site has been established that talks about the benefits of the merger, a press release has been issued, and there was a conference call and Webcast this morning. There are no PR firms listed on the press release, however, based on these items, it’s clear that comms is playing an important role as the merger plays out.

Citi Cards launched two new options for cardholders on March 4: Citi Forward, which rewards customers who use the card responsibly by actually lowering their purchase interest rate by a quarter of a percent; and , which gives customers rewards points for reporting their socially responsible activities on the card’s social media page.

“For Citi, this is an offering that rewards consumers for using credit wisely,” noted Terry O’Neil, EVP of Citi Cards in an e-mail to PRWeek. “For MySpace, the new card educates users about being fiscally responsible and mindful in today’s economic climate.”

Citi Cards has been working with TMGpr on the launch activities, which include a pre-launch Webcast moderated by Christopher Penn from the Financial Aid Podcast; “man-on-the-street” video clips now appearing on the card’s ; ; and media outreach, which has gotten coverage in a number of outlets, including Fox Business News.

“If you want to establish deep connections with your consumers, you have to be wherever they are,” Tami Gross-McCarthy, founder and CEO of TMGpr, told PRWeek. “Citi is interested in a two-way dialogue with consumers. The social media world helps us to achieve that.”

When a company faces a crisis so bad that it believes its name is permanently sullied, in enters the rebrand and rename. Witness ValuJet to AirTran, Philip Morris to Altria, Anderson Consulting to Accenture, and Blackwater to Xe.

Now it seems it’s the beleaguered auto industry’s turn to get creative. General Motors’ asset management service unit, General Motors Asset Management, has dropped GM from its name, The Wall Street Journal reports. Instead, it will rebrand as Promark Global Advisors, as it looks to win more “external business.” GM currently accounts for 80% of its funds, WSJ writes.

The re-branding exercise represents a marketing about-face for GMAM, which had previously highlighted its relationship with the auto maker as a strength. Marketing material on its Web site noted: “The investment programs offered to our clients are the same ones in which GM’s benefit plans participate.” Some of GMAM’s senior executive team, including its CFO and chief operating officer, joined from GM or its GMAC financing arm.

I wonder who else will get a new name in ‘09?

Two things that many in the financial communications probably didn’t expect to see together in the same sentence anytime soon: IR and Twitter.

On Friday, eBay announced on its blog, eBay Ink, that after three quarters of reporting its quarterly earnings via blog and covering the earnings calls on Twitter, the company has created some best practices for the earnings blogging going forward.

Those practices include a separate legal page to the Ink blog, rotating financial info every 90 days on the blog and Twitter, and special language that will designate some Tweets as a live-blogging session for the earnings announcement.

Ebay blogger Richard Brewer-Hay wrote that he was worried when he had to approach his legal team for the first time to talk about best practices and couldn’t find other companies who were using these social media tactics for their earnings announcements. But his fears were unfounded.

“I was worried I would be forced to cease this innovative way of reporting company information to our constituents,” Brewer-Hay wrote. “Thankfully that was not the case. Rather, it was mutually agreed that we could take this opportunity to set up a best practices approach to live-blogging and reporting company information via the Web - beyond traditional conference call and press release.”

American International Group (AIG) declined to comment to PRWeek on the buzz earlier this week concerning its relationships with a number of PR firms, including Kekst & Company.

After the blog item posted, PRWeek spoke with Christina Pretto, AIG’s VP of corporate media relations, who clarified the company’s partnership with Kekst, saying the relationship isn’t new, that “AIG has worked with Kekst for years on M&A transactions.” Pretto declined to comment further.

The Web has been abuzz with news that ailing insurer American International Group (AIG) has added Kekst & Company to its list of PR firm representation. AIG is also working with Sard Verbinnen, Hill & Knowlton, and Burson-Marsteller. AIG declined to comment on the PR firms with which they’re working .

AIG has received $150 billion in government funds since September, when the federal government also took an 80% stake in the company. AIG reported fourth quarter net losses totaling $61.7 billion on March 2nd. The company also came under fire during from both members of the Senate Budget Committee and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who said that “AIG exploited a huge gap in the regulatory system.” AIG may receive a fourth round of bailout funding to stay afloat.

Carol Bartz, Yahoo’s CEO since January, reached out to consumers via the company blog today, shortly after it disclosed that Blake Jorgensen, CFO, will exit as soon as his replacement is found.

“Today I’m rolling out a new management structure that I believe will make Yahoo a lot faster on its feet,” she blogged. “For us working at Yahoo, it means everything gets simpler. We’ll be able to make speedier decisions, the notorious silos are gone, and we have a renewed focus on the customer.”

More to come…