Not only is Europe’s debt problems bludgeoning the U.S. markets today, but the continent is also on the verge of dealing a huge blow to the hedge fund industry and its favorite tax havens.
Lawmakers in the European Union are close to passing legislation that would prevent European investors from putting money into a hedge fund domiciled in certain offshore tax havens. The proposal would create a “black list” of countries that would be off-limits to EU investors and the Caymans appears to be a prime candidate for the list.
As expected the hedge fund industry is outraged. By some estimates, nearly 80 percent of all U.S. funds have a registered entity in the Caymans.
[Via WSJ.com]
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The following post is by our anonymous hedge fund manager friend, who shall remain nameless. He runs the Emerging Markets desk at his firm.
Greece CDS has traded wider this morning on comments from the Prime Minister that his government might seek aid from the IMF. This has been taken to suggest that the rest of the EU has still not yet come to internal agreement about how to handle Greece’s debt woes. That several EU countries view an IMF-led package for an EMU member as, if not a mortal embarrassment, then at least something resolutely not to be wished has raised fears that these countries, via their influence at the IMF board level, might close off even this avenue of assistance to the Greeks. Iceland might be able to tell Greece a thing or two about trying to keep an IMF program on track while suffering the wrath of several EU members. Continue reading »
The EU is hopping on the let’s get after the-high-frequency-trading bandwagon and has started to investigate the practice. Bloomberg reports that the European commission met with industry representatives in Brussels on Jan. 11 and that the talks are part of an information-gathering exercise. In the US, the practice, which accounts for 50% to 60% of equity market trading volumes, has been under fire in the past months as regulators are calling for more stringent oversight.
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If the European Union isn’t regulating, it isn’t happy.
Stymied by fear and common sense, the EU seems likely to drop the most odious aspects of its proposed new rules on hedge funds and private equity firms. But the Europeans have simultaneously struck upon the only thing more likely to drive hedge funds out of Europe than strict oversight: draconian pay restrictions. And now it’s turned its sights on the insurance industry.
The president of the European Central Bank today backed plans to place new encumbrances on the continent’s economy by regulating big insurers the same way it regulates banks. After all, can’t those insurers be just as “systemically relevant,” á la AIG?
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