Hedge funds vote threatens EU-US rift
European countries led by France and Germany plan to push through controversial hedge fund regulations next week after turning down British pleas to defer a vote in Brussels.
The refusal by Paris and Berlin to delay a decision on the new rules, which are opposed by the UK, has set up a bruising early confrontation with David Cameron’s new government.
The directive has also caused concern in the US. Tim Geithner, Treasury secretary, wrote to EU officials in March warning that, if unchanged, the new regulations could trigger a transatlantic rift by unfairly locking US funds out of European markets.
“The Americans are going absolutely ape,” said a person involved in the negotiations. “There’s this overwhelming belief now in Europe that if we legislate first, then the US will follow what we do.”
British diplomats tried on Wednesday to persuade Paris and Berlin that Mr Cameron’s coalition – including George Osborne, his chancellor of the exchequer – needed more time to prepare for Tuesday’s meeting of European Union finance ministers.
But Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, and Angela Merkel, German chancellor, are determined to settle a regulatory framework on hedge funds and the private equity sector, which they claim were partly to blame for the financial crash.
Elena Salgado, finance minister of Spain, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said other ministers would not agree to a further delay.
Ms Salgado told the Financial Times: “There is a very clear majority of countries that want to approve it. After that, there still has to be the dialogue with the [European] parliament . . . [But] our intention is to approve it.” A senior German official in Berlin said:
“We want this put to a vote next week.” Britain looks certain to lose any vote and Mr Osborne could be forced to swallow proposals requiring greater transparency from hedge funds.
The measures are opposed as excessively onerous in London, Europe’s main private equity centre and home to 80 per cent of its hedge fund industry.
Under the rules, hedge fund managers and private equity firms could be forced to curtail leverage, make regular disclosures about portfolios and to hold their assets with European banks.
Managers and investors have said the plans could push much of the industry to leave Europe.
The issue will test relations between Mr Cameron’s Conservative-led coalition – including pro-European Liberal Democrats – and the rest of the EU.
Reporting by George Parker and Sam Jones in London, Victor Mallet in Madrid, Quentin Peel in Berlin, Joshua Chaffin in Brussels and Ben Hall in Paris
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