Myners to lobby on EU hedge fund plans

LONDON (Reuters) - Treasury minister Paul Myners said on Tuesday the UK plans a bout of summer lobbying to soften the EU's draft directive on hedge funds and private equity, a set of draft laws he says requires "major surgery".

"Officials will lobby in more than a dozen key capitals over the summer," he told a meeting organised by hedge fund industry body the Alternative Investment Management Association.

"I myself will be engaging directly with my opposite numbers in key member states."

The directive, which was unveiled in April, plans to give regulators more control over funds' borrowing levels and would also limit which funds can be sold within the EU.

In his speech Myners said he opposed the introduction of leverage caps and said pension savers would be hit if they are unable to invest in funds from outside the EU.

The directive has come in for major criticism from fund executives in the UK, which is home to 80 percent of Europe's hedge fund industry.

Germany and France have pressed for stiffer regulation of the sector at recent summits of world leaders on the financial crisis and its fallout, and France has said it wants tougher rules than what is currently on the table.

(To read the Reuters Hedge Fund Blog click on blogs.reuters.com/hedgehub; for the Global Investing Blog click here)

(Reporting by Laurence Fletcher; editing by Patrick Graham)