From the salons of Mayfair to the sidelines of children’s baseball games in the fancier parts of town beloved of expats, the outrage in London is palpable. Mention the European Union’s new proposal to regulate alternative investment managers – as those who work in the hedge fund and private equity world are known – and out pours a torrent of angry complaints. The draft directive is, say industry figures, poorly drafted, ill conceived and anti-competitive. “A blatant attempt by the French and Germans to sock one to London,” fumes one Mayfair-based hedge fund manager.

Veteran financiers worry proposals could prove to be as damaging to European hedge funds as the US’s 1963 tax on securities issued by non-US companies was to the overseas bond market there. The “Yankee bond” industry stopped dead; meanwhile in London SG Warburg bank arranged the first “eurobond” for an Italian company later that year, giving the City a pre-eminence in bonds that it holds to this day.