EU hedge fund talks collapse

Background

In April 2009, the European Commission proposed a new set of rules for hedge funds and private equity firms, requiring mandatory registration and disclosure of their activities to regulators, while at the same time easing their access to European markets in the long term (EurActiv 30/04/09). 

The main regulatory component of the proposed legislation is an obligation for EU-based managers of so-called 'alternative investment funds' to register and disclose their activities, in order to improve supervision and avoid systemic risks. 

The obligations are not applied to the funds themselves, but only to their managers, who are considered responsible for key decisions. However, critics said that the exemption of funds from the proposed new regulation would leave hedge funds and private equity free to develop their investment policies, despite the fact that their risk-prone attitudes were strongly criticised during the financial crisis.

More on this topic

"The Spanish Presidency walked into the room and announced they were taking the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) off the agenda as there was a signal that they could not get an agreement," an EU diplomat told EurActiv.

Finance ministers came to Brussels yesterday (15 March) to agree on a rescue package for Greece (EurActiv 16/03/10) and to give their final seal of approval to draft legislation to make alternative asset vehicles, like hedge funds and private equity, more transparent and more accountable to their regulators.

EU officials close to the talks speculate that UK concerns over the draft law derailed what was expected to be a difficult compromise agreement today.

One EU official told EurActiv that the Spanish Presidency was still keen to clinch a deal before June, but with no consensus in sight the draft law would need a few more weeks' work.

The draft legislation has fallen at many hurdles lately. France and the UK are embroiled in a long-standing row over whether funds could access market across the EU with a single European passport (EurActiv 15/03/10).

The UK floated the idea of an EU funds passport to grant asset managers access to investors across the bloc.

But France showed early on that its opposition to such a passport was irreconcilable.

More recently, the US Treasury accused the European Commission, the authors of the draft law, of creating a transatlantic rift by writing laws that would discriminate against American asset managers (EurActiv 12/03/10). 

Links