Schröder to Tighten Hedge Fund Rules

German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said on Monday that his government will seek to tighten monitoring of highly-speculative hedge funds. The chancellor underlined that he would try to define unified international rules for hedge funds together with other Group of Eight and European countries. "We want stable financial markets," Schröder said in a speech he's expected to deliver at a meeting of his Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Berlin Monday. "We need effective supervision and clearly improved transparency of the hedge-fund market. For that reason I will speak out in favor of uniform minimum standards on hedge funds at the Group of Eight summit." Last month Schröder ordered a probe into hedge funds after Franz Müntefering, chairman of the SPD compared foreign investors seeking short-term gains to 'locusts.' On Monday however, Schröder stressed that foreign investors were still welcome in Germany. "The decisive thing is that they stick to the rules of a social market economy," the chancellor said.