Market turmoil may lead UK & US to rethink on hedge funds

This is a bit speculative, but possibly a good sign if accurate. This is from the Thomson Investment Management News website which is free to subscribe to.

LONDON (Thomson IM) - The US and UK are likely to change their stance on hedge fund transparency regulation in view of the recent market turbulence, the German finance minister Peer Steinbrueck said at a conference.

The minister stressed in his speech at the Banken im Umbruch event that higher transparency is at the heart of the G8 agenda. Germany had put hedge fund regulation high on the agenda of its year-long G8 presidency, given its concerns that rapid growth in the sector could destabilise the global financial system.

The German government, the minister continued, had started 'an intensive debate over the limitation of potential systemic risks in the financial markets.' At the G8 summit in Heiligendamm in June, however, little progress was made on the issue and the UK and the US have so far proved 'hesitant' he said.

'Perhaps they still remember that I set this topic early at the beginning of this year's political agenda. I could envisage that the initially rather hesitant attitude of the USA and Great Britain could still change before our next meeting, in the light of the current crisis,' Steinbrueck said.

He went on to say that the UK hedge fund working group, launched to review voluntary best practice, and the US initiative of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG), were a step in the right direction.