Hedge fund stories from the past 24 hours from Reuters and elsewhere:

Paulson deepens recovery bet - Seeking Alpha

Brussels trying to choke London - Telegraph blogs

UK pension scheme urged towards hedgies - Reuters

New problem, Old solution - WSJ

Insurance giants lumber into AIFM debate - ABI

For those tiring of the squabbling over the European Union’s AIFM directive, at least the rhetoric continues to impress.

The EU threat has certainly made pension funds more bullish, and this week they were threatening to gang up on “arrogant” hedgies to force through far stricter terms on performance fees. “Institutional investors are totally disillusioned with funds not delivering what was on the tin,” Philip Read, chairman of the British Coal scheme, told chastened managers at the Hedge 2009 conference.

And what’s this? Even the Welsh have waded in with an attack on what they see as needless bureaucracy from the directive.

But my favourite comments come from Anthony Hilton’s column in yesterday’s Evening Standard. He asks a “French mole” to explain the EU’s onslaught on the hedge fund industry when there is broad agreement that the hedgies were not to blame for the financial crisis. The mole does not disappoint.

“It’s like when there is someone in a pub that you have never liked. When a fight breaks out, you hit him anyway, not because he caused the fight, but because you have always wanted to.”

The growing discomfort among pension funds over EU plans to regulate the hedge fund industry has prompted another public pronouncement, this time from Dutch schemes with assets of about 450 billion euros, including APG and PGGM.

We’ve noted the potential pivotal role the pension industry could play before, but as yet there hasn’t been an appreciable softening in the tone adopted by the hardliners. Their standard bearer Poul Nyrup Rasmussen called London Mayor Boris Johnson “out of touch with reality” after the much-lobbied blonde tried to strike a blow for the alternatives industry on a vist to Brussels this week.

It is notable though that the Dutch funds have deliberately sought to divorce themselves from the frenetic efforts of the hedge funds and private equity funds, instead pleading to MEPs as ‘users’ of the industry.

Speaking to Global Pensions, APG compliance officer Gerben Everts said: “Unlike suggestions in the proposal, we do not think the protection envisaged by the directive is really beneficial for us, as professional investors.”

He urged more transparency among hedge funds, and echoed warnings by the UK’s largest pension scheme and the British trade body for pension schemes that the rules as they stand could lead to higher pension premia and lower payouts — difficult conclusions to ponder for a socialist parliamentarian aware of the problems posed by Europe’s ageing population.

Hedge fund stories from the past 24 hours from Reuters and elsewhere:

 Hedge funds bet big on BofA - Reuters

Top plays by hedge funds in Q2 - Reuters

Edinburgh hedge funds feel Madoff effect - Bloomberg

London Mayor ‘encouraged’ as he takes hedge fund fight to Brussels - Telegraph

Soros fund seen soaring as rivals lose out- Reuters