The International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds (IFSWF) is a nonprofit international group of sovereign wealth funds managers which was established in 2009. It is based in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

In 2009, a group of 23 leading state-owned international investors from around the world established the IFSWF's precursor, the International Working Group of Sovereign Wealth Funds, following discussions with global groups such as the

G20 The G20 or Group of Twenty is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union (EU). It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation, ...

IMF The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...

, and the U.S. Department of Treasury in 2007 and 2008. The Working Group created a set of Generally Accepted Principles and Practices, better known as the "

Santiago Principles The Santiago Principles or formally the Sovereign Wealth Funds: Generally Accepted Principles and Practices (GAPP) are designed as a common global set of 24 voluntary guidelines that assign best practices for the operations of Sovereign Wealth Fund ...

", for sovereign wealth funds' institutional governance and risk-management frameworks. Following the Kuwait Declaration in 2009, the International Working Group became the IFSWF with the mandate of helping members implement the Principles.

Overview

As of February 2018 IFSWF had 32 members, including some of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, like the

China Investment Corporation China Investment Corporation (CIC) (Chinese: 中国投资有限责任公司; pinyin: ''zhōngguó tóuzī yǒuxiàn zérèn gōngsī'') is a sovereign wealth fund that manages part of the People's Republic of China's foreign exchange reserves. C ...

, Kuwait Investment Authority, and the

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority ( ar, جهاز أبوظبي للاستثمار, ADIA) is a sovereign wealth fund owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (in the United Arab Emirates) founded for the purpose of investing funds on behalf of the Gover ...

. It was set up by the funds, so they could come together and create an organisation to promote

best practice A best practice is a method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior to other known alternatives because it often produces results that are superior to those achieved by other means or because it has become a standard way of doing ...

within their field. Its focus is "to exchange views on issues of common interest and to facilitate an understanding of sovereign wealth funds' activities and of the Santiago Principles". The 24

are a voluntary standard of best practice principles and practices endorsed by the IFSWF members for the management of the Sovereign Wealth Funds. Its member funds collectively have about $5.5 trillion under management, representing 80% of assets managed by sovereign funds globally. When established the IFSWF formalized a limited number of partnerships with world-leading financial and academic partners. The inaugural meeting of IFSWF was held in

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

, Azerbaijan, and it was hosted by the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan and the government of

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

. In 2016, the IFSWF and Standards Board for Alternative Investments establish a mutual observer relationship to share knowledge and experience with the objective to raise Standards in the financial industry. Looking at the most recently published accounts at Companies House, IFSWF Limited made a net profit of £176,758

GBP Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and t ...

as of December 31, 2015. This included a nonrefundable capital transfer from the

in relation to accumulated membership fees of £884,194 GBP. The accounts are generated in accordance with the

International Financial Reporting Standards International Financial Reporting Standards, commonly called IFRS, are accounting standards issued by the IFRS Foundation and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). They constitute a standardised way of describing the company's f ...

References

{{authority control Financial regulation International organisations based in London Sovereign wealth funds Standards organisations in the United Kingdom

History

Overview

See also

References