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guardian.co.uk – Sterling fell against the dollar to near a two-week low on Monday after a collapse of support for the UK’s ruling Labour Party in the European election raised the chances of further challenges to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Despite its losses against the dollar, the pound rose against the euro, as the single European currency came under broad selling pressure after Standard & Poor’s cut its sovereign rating on Ireland for the second time in three months.
Analysts said Labour’s drubbing in weekend European elections added to the uncertainty surrounding the political future of Britain’s embattled prime minister, who reshuffled his Cabinet on Friday after six of the party’s ministers quit.
The Ledger – Anxiously assembled at the most perilous moment for the global economy since the Great Depression, the world’s financial powers pledged more than $1 trillion Thursday for emergency loans to combat spreading chaos. But they rebuffed President Barack Obama’s bid for new stimulus spending and made no guarantees of success.
"This was the day the world came together to fight back against global recession," declared British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the summit host, as he led a choreographed show of unity designed to boost confidence in homes and boardrooms everywhere. "This is just the beginning," added Obama.
No one promised an immediate impact, and all agreed much remained to be done.
Bloomberg – The Group of 20 leaders will agree on new rules to rein in hedge funds and may more than double the resources of the International Monetary Fund, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said.
“There is a recognition that some hedge funds are systemically important,” Darling told Bloomberg Television in an interview today in London. “There will be an agreement there. Where you’ve got something that’s systemically important like a hedge fund, you need to know what’s going on there.”
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has struggled to allay the concerns of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy as they press for a crackdown on traders and lenders. Darling’s comments suggest consensus is now emerging among G-20 leaders in the London talks on measures to combat the financial crisis.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) – Hedge fund regulation was the hot topic at this past weekend’s meeting of European Union leaders, when German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted a summit in Berlin discussing ways to curtail the financial crisis.
Merkel joined leaders from The Netherlands, Spain, France, Italy, England, the Czech Republic and Luxembourg to agree on a unified EU stance prior to London’s G20 Summit in April, where all the world’s leaders will come together to discuss the financial crisis.
"We have today underscored our conviction that all financial markets, products and participants must be subject to appropriate oversight or regulation, without exception and regardless of their country of domicile,” said Merkel. “This is especially true for those private pools of capital, including hedge funds, that may present a systemic risk," she said, although the details of how hedge funds should be regulated still need to be worked out.
English Prime Minister Gordon Brown has also expressed his belief that there should be tighter regulation, despite the fact that London is Europe’s premier center for hedge funds.
"Together we will support oversight of under-regulated sectors and I also support proper disclosure and transparency of hedge funds," Brown said earlier this month.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed, saying, “We want regulation of hedge funds, and we’re not going to put up any longer with the bonus reward system of traders and bankers.”
The EU leaders are scheduled to meet again this Sunday.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
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Reuters UK – Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on Thursday for greater regulation of hedge funds.
Speaking in Rome after a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi ahead of April’s G20 summit, Brown also said leaders would focus their attention on how to tackle the financial crisis in Eastern Europe.
"Together we will support oversight of under-regulated sectors and I also support proper disclosure and transparency of hedge funds," he said. "The G20 is determined to address the financial crisis in Eastern Europe."
