Charlie McCreevy is courting controversy. Just two days ago, he told the FT the backlash against hedge funds and private equity was merely a thinly-disguised crackdown on shareholder activism, and regulators were trying to “pass the buck” to him because they don’t actually know where systemic risk lies.
Now, the EU’s top financial regulator is set to deliver a speech in Dublin which will argue that while warnings of a default in the pe sector are not misplaced, they are overplayed. “[I do not shiver] at the prospects of such a default because it will be precisely when a major default does occur…that markets will adjust, amateurs will get driven out, and sound and sensible banking principles will be restored,” the text of the speech read.
And it gets better.
“Fools get parted from their money. And fools posing as professionals as well as professionals behaving like fools - deserve to be parted from their money,” the text continued.
McCreevy believes “private equity houses and activist fund managers of all kinds — including hedge funds — play a much more valuable role than any government or any regulator in propelling the liquidity of our capital markets, in reducing the cost of capital.”
Step aside, Damon Buffini, for the true champion of private equity and hedge funds has come to claim his crown.
