Hedge funds are no longer a peripheral, if colourful, minority sport in global capitalism. Millions of people are now hedge fund investors through their pension funds. The futures of businesses such as Barclays, the LSE and Vodafone are increasingly influenced by those Mayfair boutiques. And the sums are so large that they could threaten the stability and integrity of the markets.

So the creation of a working group to look at standards is welcome. The findings could be useful to supervisors and investors. Fuller disclosure, more robust valuation methodologies and smarter risk controls are laudable goals. The challenge is to answer the wider questions of public interest – market abuse, tax avoidance, aggressive activism and the role played by hedge funds in the M&A battles that will decide the fate of some of Britain’s biggest companies.

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