ABI’s Montagnon steps up EUhedgie rules fight
THE ASSOCIATION of British Insurers (ABI) has stepped up the fight againstEuropean plans to regulate the hedge fund industry with an iron fist.
Peter Montagnon, the ABI’s head of investment affairs, called for an urgent debate on the European Union’s (EU) draft directive on alternative investment funds.
In an interview with City PM he said the insurance industry has a “central role in the capital and financial markets”, so the EUshould sit up and listen to its views on hedge funds.
“The problem we’ve got is that, as it is currently constructed, the directive just doesn’t deliver,” he said.
Montagnon said the directive does have some merits such as a new fund passporting feature allowing hedge funds to be marketed Europewide.
“But the compliance burdens are so expensive that the passporting benefit is not going to be compensated for,” he said.