February 04, 2007	Sunday	Muharram 15, 1428

BERLIN, Feb 3: German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck is considering urging banks to provide more information on loans to hedge funds to improve transparency of the $1.7 trillion hedge fund industry, a magazine said on Saturday.

German weekly Der Spiegel said Steinbrueck will raise the suggestion at a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrial nations in Essen on February 9-10. Germany will chair the meeting.

The magazine said the finance ministry's vision foresees banks having to reveal to banking supervisory authorities how much money they have lent, and to which hedge funds.

According to the plans, hedge funds should be urged to reconsider their information policy towards banks, investors and the public, as part of a drive to encourage the funds to submit freely to a code of conduct, the magazine added.

The ministry’s plans also envisage the possibility of hedge funds submitting to monitoring by independent rating agencies.

Germany holds the rotating presidencies of both the European Union and the G8, which comprises the G7 and Russia.

Steinbrueck has made improving controls of hedge funds a target of its presidencies but said in Brussels at the start of this week he did not expect any concrete proposals to have been submitted on hedge funds before the end of June.—Reuters