WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) — The US Securities and Exchange Commission will propose raising asset requirements for investing in hedge funds at a December 4 public meeting.The agency will also consider new anti-fraud rules that would prohibit hedge fund managers from making false or misleading statements to individuals who invest in funds, the SEC said in a statement yesterday.

Hedge funds are open to institutions such as insurance companies, mutual funds and pension funds, and individuals who meet certain asset thresholds, such as $1 million in assets or at least $200,000 in income for the past two years.

The SEC didn't specify how it might limit the pool of hedge-fund investors.

Lawmakers have become increasingly concerned that a hedge- fund meltdown could put less affluent investors at risk since Amaranth Advisors LLC lost $6.5 billion in September on bad natural gas trades. Investors in Amaranth, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based fund, included the San Diego County Employees Retirement Association.

Hedge funds are private pools of capital that allow managers to participate substantially in the gains of the money invested.

The meeting will be the SEC's first attempt to regulate hedge funds since a federal court in June threw out rules forcing funds to register their size, number of employees, types of clients with the agency and submit to random inspections.