It’s not just the bankers getting hit by a nasty Christmas surprise. Accountants and law firms are fielding criticism as details emerge of the fees they’ve generated from collapsing businesses. And Hedge funds are also getting it in the neck. They’ve received much abuse through the financial crisis – even collapsing banks got in on the act complaining about hedge fund’s shorting their stock: “When I find a short-seller, I want to tear his heart out and eat it before his eyes while he’s still alive,” said Dick Fuld of investors shorting Lehman.

But this is more threatening. Whilst bankers are currently preoccupied by a nasty bout of overtax, hedge funds are suffering from a different legislative ill. Sweden, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, took some pot shots at the hedge fund industry last month. The draft Alternative Investment Fund Manager directive proposed limiting their ability to make rewards for short-term success and generally regulating their activities much more onerously. That has given hedgies the jitters.

Commenting on what effect this would have on the industry, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer said if the proposals became law the impact would be “rapid and decisive…no hedge funds will operate from within the EU”.

“Hedge funds are much more mobile than banks. It’s much easier for three guys in Mayfair to pack their bags and move to Geneva,” said Michael Raffan, head of Freshfields’ financial services group in the FT .

This would be particularly bad for the UK as more than three quarters of Europe’s hedge funds are based in London, contributing about £3.5 billion a year in tax revenues to the Treasury.