EUROPE - McCreevy remains vague about PE regulation

Fran
28 January 2009

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According to reports, EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy still has reservations about regulating private equity firms, despite heavy pressure from MEPs and earlier promises made by European Commission President José Manuel Barroso.

In September, the Parliament adopted two resolutions urging the EU executive to regulate private equity and hedge funds more closely. The texts derived from two reports drafted by Party of European Socialists President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and Klaus-Heiner Lehne, a centre-right (EPP-ED) MEP from Germany.

Speaking at an international conference on financial services held in Brussels earlier this week, McCreevy is said to have made clear that an ongoing consultation on hedge funds, launched by the Commission in December, will result in "appropriate regulatory initiatives". But he remained vague about whether similar measures should be adopted for private equity.

McCreevy has so far applied his traditional laissez-faire approach to private equity firms, asking the sector to adopt self-regulatory codes but opting not to intervene directly. A position which has been attacked.