The IMF noted that “many have welcomed the recent role of sovereign wealth funds in providing capital to several large banks affected by the sub-prime mortgage crisis”. And so they should – not only did the SWFs go where others feared, or could no longer afford, to tread, but some of these investments seem in retrospect to have been overly generous.

Soon after CIC invested in Blackstone, the holding lost nearly $1bn in less than a month. Likewise China Development Bank and Temasek were left nursing losses of $440m and $300m on their respective $3bn and $2bn stakes in Barclays.

Perhaps the last word should go to US investor Warren Buffet who, by topping the Forbes’ 2008 World’s Billionaires List with a net worth of $62bn, would easily qualify as an SWF in his own right.

“There’s been much talk recently of sovereign wealth funds and how they are buying large pieces of American businesses. This is our doing, not some nefarious plot by foreign governments. Our trade equation guarantees massive foreign investment in the US. When we force-feed $2bn daily to the rest of the world, they must invest in something here. Why should we complain when they choose stocks over bonds?”