Qualified Institutional Buyer - QIB
Categories: Investing
See: Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor - QDII. See: QEP.
A QEP is basically an investor with enough money that the government assumes they can deal with more sophisticated (and potentially riskier) investments. Those higher-level opportunities include a lot of hedge funds, which are otherwise closed to your average diner at Hardee's.
A qualified institutional buyer is the corporate version of this. The QEP is a person with sufficient funds to unlock new levels in the investing video game. The QIBs are companies. Specifically, the regulations state that these companies must manage at least $100 million, or fulfill some other minimum financial requirements. The status allows them to make investments closed to smaller (and presumably less sophisticated) funds.