Eversheds comment: Germany calls on UK to drop objections to AIFM directive.

Following Angela Merkel challenging Gordon Brown to drop his objections to the AIFM directive, Ronald Paterson, partner at international law firm Eversheds comments: “The UK's objections to the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive are not about whether hedge fund managers should or should not be regulated - hedge fund managers in the UK (unlike the US) have always been regulated and the Directive will also regulate managers of every type of fund which is not a UCITS fund. The UK's objections particularly relate to what types of funds from outside the EU can be sold in the EU to pension funds and other institutional investors. This will affect the returns that savers can expect on their pensions and other savings. Rushing through ill considered regulations can never be defended as a really good idea particularly when those regulations have such far reaching effects as the current draft of the AIFM Directive will have. The politicians should be focusing on producing a regulatory framework that is fit for purpose.”