A complete guide to sovereign wealth funds written by and for industry practitioners

List of Tables and Figures xiii

List of Abbreviations xv

Misplaced fears 10

The plan of the book 13

1 The Macroeconomic Dynamics Behind SWFs 17

1.1 Persistent current account surpluses translate into accumulation of foreign assets 18

1.2 Absorption constraints: the rationale for establishing SWFs and FWFs 21

1.3 The management of natural resources windfall 24

1.4 Commodities demand and the supercycle theory 29

1.5 SWFs as alternative to an income tax system: what if Norway becomes like Saudi Arabia? 33

2 Size and Growth of SWFs Assets 37

2.1 Size and clusters of SWFs 38

2.2 Drivers of SWFs asset growth 43

2.3 The optimal level of foreign exchange reserves 45

2.4 Future growth in FX reserves: commodity- versus noncommodity-exporting countries 47

2.5 Size of SWFs by 2016 49

Appendix: How big could SWFs be by 2016? 54

3 SWFs as Investors in Global Markets 71

3.1 Clustering SWFs by objectives and investment profiles 74

3.2 SWFs as strategic investors in domestic and global markets 83

3.3 Geographical and sector distribution of SWF strategic investments: the 20072008 surge of investments in Western financials 86

3.4 Investment performance of SWFs and the impact of the financial crisis 94

3.5 Explicit and implicit liabilities of SWFs 97

3.6 Long-term investments: SWFs as the ultimate risk bearers 99

4 Risk Management for SWFs 105

4.1 The crisis in retrospect 108

4.2 The complex qualitative nature of risk: uncertainty, chaos, black swans and fat tails 111

4.3 Banking regulation, herd behaviour and contagion 113

4.4 The evolution of the regulatory framework 118

4.5 Sketches of risk management for SWFs 121

4.6 An unconventional dimension of risk management: shareholders vs stakeholders 129

5 SWFs in the Geopolitics of the Twenty-first Century 131

5.1 The shift to the East of the global economy: the New Silk Route 137

5.2 The law of unintended consequences? Chinas influence through financial muscle 141

5.3 SWFs investing in the less developed economies: Africa as the last investment frontier 145

5.4 The new financial geography: the emerging multipolar financial architecture 147

5.5 The dominance of the US$ in global financial markets: SWFs as US$ diversifiers 149

5.6 SWFs and the new regulatory environment for financial institutions: the upcoming war for capital 152

6 The Politics of SWFs Engagement 155

6.1 National responses to the growing role of SWFs 156

6.2 International response to the growing role of SWFs 159

6.3 SWFs response to international pressure 161

6.4 Santiago Principles: rationale, implementation and reality 163

6.5 A digression on public versus private role in the economy 168

7 Wrapping Up 173

7.1 Towards a multipolar world 175

7.2 Governments activism in economic and financial affairs 176