A stand-off between France and the UK has dashed hopes that an agreement on European rules for hedge funds and private equity funds could be reached this week, forcing diplomats to suspend a final negotiating session

France pressed its European Union partners to impose strict rules on hedge funds, inspite of Swedish warnings that even the tightest regulation would be no guarantee against financial turmoil akin to that of the past two years

France is ready to drop objections to a key part of a law to tighten rules on hedge funds in exchange for concessions from London, a senior diplomat said, moving to end a row that threatened to harm relations with Washington.

European laws to regulate hedge funds and private equity funds for the first time should be subject to a full impact assessment, a UK treasury minister says

James Surowiecki has a good primer on why nothing worked to counter the flurry of selling in the markets. Here’s the key part of his argument, but do read the whole thing: “Rating agencies and Wall Street analysts are always with us. But the most destructive procyclical force in today’s market is relatively new—hedge funds. There’s an irony here: hedge funds have been...

Leading contender for most deliciously ironic event of the credit crash was the news this week  that Porsche had cost hedge funds up to $25bn through some complex financial mechanism which I can’t quite get my head around, but which seems to have involved them lending VW shares to the funds to short sell without

I was watching Will Hutton's Dispatches programme on bank failures last night, and it really emphasised the point that it is impossible to generalise about hedge funds, much as many of us lefties like to. Bear Stearns was floored by its hedge funds' exposure to CDOs, as part of a big punt on subprime. Yet at the same time (and subsequently) there were hedge funds profiting from a wholly ...

Hundreds of small companies have warned EU legislators over possible consequences of proposals to regulate hedge funds and private equity funds, saying these could affect capital support

The FT reports that EU member states seem to be closer to a deal on hedge fund rules. This comes after France dropped its opposition in principle to the introduction of a passport giving managers of funds based in third countries marketing rights throughout the EU, once they meet certain regulatory conditions.

The European Commission yesterday (11 March) rejected criticism coming from Washington that plans to regulate hedge funds and private equity in Europe would cause a transatlantic rift by closing doors to US funds.