LONDON (Reuters) — UK Treasury Minister Ed Balls said yesterday that Britain’s principles-based financial regulatory regime was helping to attract business to London.“We have a principles-based and a risk-based approach to regulation which has proved to be effective ... we are determined to keep it that way,” Balls said at a meeting of international securities regulators.

The London Stock Exchange has been attracting a growing number of listings of foreign companies in recent years after the Sarbanes-Oxley act in the United States ushered in new compliance rules that were considered by some to be too onerous and expensive.

Groups representing market users, such as the Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers, have expressed concern that if a US firm were to take over the London exchange it would bring with it this rules-based US-style regulation.

Long-running bid target the LSE is 25 percent owned by Nasdaq Stock Markets Inc. and the US bourse is free to make a new bid at any time.

Balls also reiterated the British government’s neutrality on the nationality of the ownership of the London Stock Exchange.

He said the government would introduce a bill into Parliament yesterday which will give the Financial Services Authority (FSA) powers to protect regulation of the exchanges and the clearing houses.

Balls said Britain’s regulatory regime was also effective in supervising hedge fund managers while recognising the complexity of this sector.

“Fundamental to our approach is the presumption that we should be blind to ownership of exchanges so long as our regulatory environment is protected,” Balls said.

Also speaking at the conference, Callum McCarthy, the FSA’s Chairman, said the rapid development of financial flows, especially in the Asian capital markets, posed new challenges for regulators.

These developments increase the need for cooperation between regulators from different countries, McCarthy said, adding that it was in everyone’s interests to come up with workable solutions.