Bono and Bob Geldof were not the only disappointed visitors to Heiligendamm at the end of the latest G8 Summit. With the US, UK and, to a lesser extent, Japan refusing to agree on even a voluntary code of conduct for hedge funds, Angela Merkel also had reason to complain.

In fact, the German chancellor failed to get any concessions at all on the issue from the leaders of the three nations in which most of the world’s 9,000-plus hedge funds are based.

This did not, however, come as a surprise. It had already been made clear at a meeting of finance ministers in Potsdam the previous month that Germany’s calls for regulated transparency in the hedge fund industry would come to nothing. And on the eve of the summit, Merkel, who is fast becoming the prime mover in the drive for regulation, was already conceding defeat on the issue.

Upcoming Ethical Corporation conferences & events:
How to manage Social & Environmental Risk in the mining, oil & gas, steel and other heavy industries
London, 22-23 March 2010 The Responsible Business Summit 2010
Novotel West Hotel, London, 4th – 5th May 2010 The Inaugural Ethical Corporation Awards
Novotel West Hotel, London, Evening of 4th May 2010
The Awards will be held at the Responsible Summit -
on the evening of the first day
Please login to view whole article - or subscribe here.
For a free two week trial to Ethical Corporation online, please click here.