European Union

EUROPE/FRANCE - The European Commission has told France to change tax rules that penalise foreign pension and investment funds.

EUROPE - The European Parliament economic and monetary affairs committee (EP) reached a compromise agreement on the scope of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) directive that could allow non EU-domiciled funds to be marketed in Europe.

EUROPE/US - The European Commission has hit back at a letter by US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner warning the implementation of the hedge funds directive could cause a transatlantic rift by discriminating against US firms.

GLOBAL/EUROPE - The Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA) has criticised the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) directive for reducing European Union institutional investors' access to private equity investments.

EUROPE - The current version of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) directive does not have the qualified majority support in the in the European Council (EC) needed to pass, a document by the EC showed.

The spring thaw is imminent, and after the freezing winter shocks of debt, debt and a little more debt, there are signs that investor risk appetite is warming up again. A frequently heard phrase is "You can't sit in cash forever, you have to do something."...

EUROPE - The European Commission is set to publish a green paper on an EU framework for pensions.

The European Commission is set to publish a green paper on an EU framework for pensions.

EUROPE - The Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (EP) started their scrutiny of the latest draft of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) directive focusing on the exemption of pension funds and other entities....

EUROPE - The current draft of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers European directive could give rise to significant legal uncertainty and "systemic failure", a committee of the Bank of England said.