News
Date: 25/Mar/2009
Financial Committee prepares 2008 report on sovereign wealth funds
The Financial Committee
The Financial Committee of the Ministry of Finance, the body responsible for advising the minister regarding the nation’s sovereign wealth funds, is writing its annual report for 2008. The report is a requirement of the decree law that created the Committee, ensuring transparency and public access to information on the management of the assets in the Economic and Social Stabilization Fund and the Pension Reserve Fund.
According to the decree, the Committee must submit the report by the end of April, with copies going to the Finance Commissions of the Senate and the lower house of Congress and to the Special Joint Budget Commission of Congress. The content of the report is also published on the Ministry of Finance website.
In committee sessions held on Wednesday and Friday of last week, members reviewed the material that will be included in the second annual report and outlined its content. Its format will be similar to that of last year, with the main focus being on recommendations in 2008 related to investment policy and the selection process for external asset managers.
The Committee discussed the recommendations it made late last year to the Ministry of Finance to delay implementation of an investment policy that included assigning 15% of total
assets to the purchase of stocks and 20% to the purchase of corporate bonds, as well as to suspend the selection process for external managers to oversee these types of investments. The Committee made these recommendations due to exceptional volatility in world markets.
At the meetings the Committee also reviewed reports on the performance of the funds and analyzed international financial conditions to verify that there was not any exposure to entities with solvency or
liquidity issues related to the global economic crisis.
The Committee is an external and autonomous body made up of eminent professionals, including: Andrés Bianchi (president), Ana María Jul (vice-president), Martín Costabal, Oscar Landerretche Moreno, Andrés Sanfuentes and Eduardo Walker.
