Cerberus's Snow Says `Lighter' Hand Is Best for Funds

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- John Snow, the former U.S. Treasury secretary named chairman of Cerberus Capital Management LP this month, said investors, not policy makers, are the best regulators of hedge funds.
Snow, who left President George W. Bush's administration in June after 3 1/2 years, said he came to favor a ``lighter'' touch for hedge funds because the industry, which oversees $1.3 trillion in assets, was too big for the government to monitor effectively.
``The real policing of these pools of capital are the investors,'' Snow said yesterday in his first interview since joining New York-based Cerberus. Any government promise to increase scrutiny would create ``a real risk of moral hazard that implies, `Don't worry. Now the government is watching over you and there aren't any problems.'''