To gain that clout, industry leaders are using a congressman-turned-lobbyist, a major increase in campaign donations, and a strategy that relies heavily on advancing their own reform ideas, making them active players in the legislative process and perhaps staving off more rigorous regulation measures.

Few might have predicted such an outcome just months ago for the hedge fund industry, which has a major presence in Boston and whose future will be largely decided in key committee votes this week and next.

Hedge funds - which are open to wealthy individuals, pension funds, and other institutional investors and bet on everything from variations in oil prices to the likelihood of mortgage foreclosures - have been under political and financial pressure in recent years; about 1,000 out of 10,000 hedge funds shut down during the last year, in many cases due to poor returns and cash-outs by strained investors.