Why have you come to Brussels today to argue in favour of less stringent regulation of alternative investment funds?
I am not just here to argue that London would be disadvantaged by this directive but also, of course, that the whole interests of the European Union would stand to suffer.
For example, if pension funds cannot easily use Alternative Investment Funds to invest and receive good returns for their funds in Europe and across the world, then that is bad news for pensioners across the world.
So are you against or in favour of a directive to regulate alternative investment funds?
Let's be clear: I am not against regulation at all. I am conscious that in coming here I seem to be defending about the most unpopular group of people in the universe, namely the bankers, but I do believe that this directive needs to be steered in a less protectionist, less bureaucratic and over-regulatory way. I am confident that this conference will garner support around the Council.
Are you defending alternative investment funds today?
One of the interesting things about this directive is that the alternative investment funds that are being targeted by this directive were not actually directly implicated in the huge meltdown that took place. Everybody agrees that the basic cause of the financial crisis was lots of debt being pushed out by very complicated derivatives and instruments which nobody understood. The hedge funds, the private equity houses and the venture capital funds were not directly implicated in that.
There is a certain sense that officialdom is taking advantage of a crisis to bring forward this piece of legislation.
Are you worried that the directive in its current form will steer investment away from London?
I am absolutely confident that London's financial services industry will come through this very strongly indeed. What I don't want to see is Europe making unforced errors allowing rival jurisdictions like the Swiss, who are actively touting for this business and who are not in the EU, to claim business, jobs, growth and investment that would otherwise stay in the European Union.
We need to look at aspects of directive that could be seen as protectionist and keeping out potential investment from America, and those are some of the points we are going to be making to the commissioner and the members of Parliament.
