"I currently actually spend more on philanthropy than I'm earning because I've accumulated a certain amount of capital and I've no intention of taking it with me".

Hungarian-born Soros, best known in Britain for reportedly making $1 billion from sterling's ignominious exit from the European Union's Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992, said that as a speculator he had no qualms about the consequences of his actions.

Soros was in London to promote his new book, "The Crisis of Global Capitalism". Echoing one of its themes, he said speculative hedge funds such as his should be regulated.

"The important thing to recognise is that markets... are neither moral nor immoral, they are amoral -- and yet as a society we need a morality. By allowing markets to dictate everything we really restrictthe scope for morality," said Soros.

Earlier, his book received a public slating from Bank of England deputy governor Mervyn King.

Its central theory of "reflexivity", which explores the two-way connection between present decisions and future debates, was "not a lasting addition to our intellectual capital", King said during a debate with Soros.