Hedge funds exempt from French bank bonus tax

Hedge funds, private equity firms and the traders of French banks working outside of France willnot be affected by France's proposed new tax on bankers' bonuses, a government official said on Wednesday.

An official from the French Economy Ministry told reporters Wednesday that the planned tax would apply to all banks operating on French territory but would not, for example, apply to a trader of France's BNP Paribas working in Shanghai or Hong Kong.

He added that France had not yet decided on how much money it hoped to raise from the planned bonus tax.