FSA's Turner sees risk EU rules target hedgies

LONDON (Reuters) - Hedge funds may have become a "target" for new European laws aiming to improve the regulatory landscape, the head of the Financial Services Authority warned on Wednesday.

Adair Turner, chairman of the FSA, said two reports on the financial crisis -- one written by himself and another chaired by former French central bank governor Jacques de Larosiere -- did not place the same weight on hedge funds as recent EU rules did.

"There is a danger that hedge funds could become a target in Europe. Both reports say that hedge funds did not play a significant role in the crisis," Turner said.

"The European proposals go further than the de Larosiere report," he told a seminar on regulation hosted by Business for New Europe.

In April the European Commission published draft laws on leverage and restriction of the sale of products from offshore financial centres.

The rules, which are still to go through the European parliament, have attracted plenty of criticism from the European hedge fund industry, about 80 percent of which is based in London.

(To read the Reuters Hedge Fund Blog click on blogs.reuters.com/hedgehub; for the Global Investing Blog click here)

(Reporting by Laurence Fletcher; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)