FTFM Hedge fund managers feel demonised – at least by European regulators. It may be bankers who are getting the hate mail from the public at large, and coming in for penal tax on their bonuses, but hedge fund managers are threatened with significant impositions on their freedom to do whatever they want – unfairly as they see it. They do not pose a systemic threat, they say, and there is no need to tie them up in layers of regulation that will impede their ability to make money for investors (and themselves).
They have the support of government and regulators in the UK – which is where most European hedge fund managers are located. Their trading activities are important for the City, and the tax they pay is significant.
