The Routledge Companion to Management Buyouts

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POLICY, REGULATION, AND PRIVATE EQUITY

A rich research agenda?

Sally Gibson and Simon Witney¹

Introduction

Until a few years ago, private equity (PE) fund manager regulation in Europe was a matter for national governments, and the EU’s “hands-off” approach gave rise to a variety of policy responses. On the one hand, many European countries judged PE to be a relatively low priority for regulators, given its mainly institutional and sophisticated investor base and perceived lack of systemic risk. In a number of EU jurisdictions (including, for example, Germany), that meant virtually no industry-specific regulation at all,² while in others (most notably the UK) fund managers were regulated, but in a relatively “light touch” way and mainly on ...