Merkel Wants G20 To Regualate Hedge Funds

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told voters at an election rally that she’ll push for greater regulation of hedge funds at next month’s Group of Twenty meeting.

Addressing a crowd of about 2,000 in the Rhine city of Bonn, Merkel said she hoped European members of the G20 would “speak with one voice” at a meeting in St. Petersburg, amid slow progress on tightening controls on hedge funds. “It’s not enough to regulate just banks but not hedge funds and shadow banks and I’ll fight for that,” she said.

Merkel, campaigning in some 57 towns and cities in the final weeks before the Sept. 22 election, said her government kept its promise to make Germany emerge stronger from the financial crisis. Gaps remain in regulation that may leave taxpayers liable for banking failures while those responsible “disappear over the next hill.”

Merkel will make her only scheduled trip abroad before the election when she meets G20 leaders on Sept. 5 and 6. That includes U.S. President Barack Obama, whose administration this year urged the euro region to boost economic growth.

The chancellor will also meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Senior members of Merkel’s Christian Democrats including chief parliamentary whip Volker Kauder have criticized Abe’s policy of targeting a 2 percent inflation rate. Manipulation of the yen’s value against other currencies may distort foreign-exchange markets and hurt the exports of Japan’s competitors, they said.

Bloomberg

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