Reuters UK- Stock market watchdogs gave their conditional blessing on Tuesday for the inclusion of hedge fund indices in European Union-regulated funds for small investors.<\/p>\n
The European Commission, the bloc’s top financial regulator, had asked the EU’s 27 national market supervisors to see whether consumers should be given a wider choice by allowing hedge fund indices in funds known as UCITS.<\/p>\n
Such indices would give small investors indirect exposure to a global sector where assets have shot up to $1.5 trillion (730 billion pounds), triggering concerns among some politicians that the loosely regulated industry needs greater supervision.<\/p>\n
In some EU states, small investors are barred from investing in hedge funds directly.<\/p>\n
Most funds in the EU are UCITS, seen as the gold standard of open-ended mutual funds, and they represent 5.5 trillion euros of assets.<\/p>\n
In return for allowing firms to offer them across the EU, they are heavily regulated to protect investors.<\/p>\n
The watchdogs that make up the Committee of European Securities Regulators published a common approach to hedge fund indices and UCITS.<\/p>\n