Accounting by sovereign wealth funds

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13 Nov 2008

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu has published "Minding the GAPP: Sovereign Wealth, Transparency, and the 'Santiago Principles'". This booklet explains the generally accepted principles and practices (GAPP) for Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) that were agreed to by an International Working Group of SWFs in September 2008.

SWFs are special-purpose investment funds owned by a national government to hold, manage, or administer assets to achieve financial objectives. Assets under management by SWFs globally have recently been estimated at $3.6 trillion, and some sources forecast that this could grow to as much as $9 trillion by 2012. Two of the new GAPP principles relate to financial reporting and auditing:

GAPP 11. Principle
An annual report and accompanying financial statements on the SWF's operations and performance should be prepared in a timely fashion and in accordance with recognized international or national accounting standards in a consistent manner.

GAPP 12. Principle
The SWF's operations and financial statements should be audited annually in accordance with recognized international or national auditing standards in a consistent manner.

Click to download Minding the GAPP: Sovereign Wealth, Transparency, and the 'Santiago Principles' (PDF 2,720k).

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