Banks more leveraged than hedge funds: Man Group CEO

ZURICH (Reuters) - British hedge fund manager Man Group Plc (EMG.L) said on Tuesday banks were more highly geared than hedge funds and bank deleveraging had been the main driver of asset-price declines.

"Hedge fund deleveraging has put pressure on asset prices as clients have redeemed. But the main point is banks are deleveraging and they are many times more leveraged than hedge funds," said Man Group Chief Executive Peter Clarke.

Speaking at the Hedge Funds World conference in Zurich, Clarke also said leverage across the hedge fund industry is now at around a third of leverage levels in 2007.

He said he expected hedge fund outflows to continue into the first quarter of 2009, but would end there.

"At that point anyone who has had to get out has already got out. We might expect institutional inflows after that," he said.

(Reporting by Martin de Sa'Pinto; Editing by David Holmes)