Callum McCarthy, chairman of the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority has taken issue with three European politicians who have demonized hedge funds, even as his agency is taking another look at a new listing rule that would have a negative impact on hedge funds, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Speaking to the European Money and Finance Forum in Germany, McCarthy took to task Franz Munterfering, formerly chairman of Germany’s Social Democratic Party; Goran Persson, Sweden’s former prime minister; and The Netherlands’ Minister of Economic Affairs Joop Wijn, who all in the past have cast aspersions on hedge funds. "We should refocus regulatory efforts away from hedge fund, however convenient it may be to demonize them, to the broader regulatory issues, which although they occur in hedge funds, are by no means confined to, and may not even be concentrated in, the hedge fund sector," McCarthy stressed. A better idea, he suggests, is first to clearly identify threats to financial stability, consumer protection and market integrity, rather than addressing them "indirectly through the prism – and possibly distorting mirror –of an attack on hedge funds." His comments come just as Germany, the incoming president of the European Union, has said it is planning a broad inquiry into the role of hedge funds in financial markets even as its commissioner for internal markets has said there is no need for further HF regulation. Meanwhile, the FSA, under pressure from the U.K.’s investment trust industry, is revisiting its secondary listing rules that would make it easier for hedge funds and private equity funds to float in London. Opponents of more lenient rules claim they could put investors at risk.