Christopher Balding, Professor at the Peking University HSBC Business School, presented at ESADE Madrid his latest book, Sovereign Wealth Funds: the New Intersection of Money and Politics, in which the author examines the challenges that confront sovereign wealth funds and the states that found them. During the lecture, which is part of the series of events organised by ESADEgeo, Balding spoke about the different case studies that his book compiles, as well as its analysis of their historical, economic and financial framework. With this work Balding seeks to develop a deeper knowledge about sovereign investment funds, beginning with their history: the evolution from being small stabilisation funds to becoming the principal institutional investors.
In the course of the lecture, Balding focused on the regularisation of the funds, about which he commented that "equal treatment is, in general, the basic idea of regulation". He went on to add that “other investments, that do not have the stigma of sovereigns funds, serve as camouflage", but "just because we change the label attached to sovereign funds, we will not change where they come from nor who controls them".
The various participants in the session also offered their views on the role of sovereign funds and Balding’s book. Javier Santiso, Director of ESADEgeo and Professor in the Department of Economics at ESADE, noted that “sovereign funds are active in Spain, although in a very discreet form". Elena Pisonero, Partner and Assistant to the Chairman of KPMG, went onto place special emphasis on the current lack of knowledge about sovereign funds, which are talked about, but that also “prompt fear because we do not know what is concealed behind them." According to Ignacio Mezquita, Executive Director of Information and Advice to Investors of Invest in Spain, Balding’s new book contains a "rich and balanced explanation of the origins, challenges and limitations of sovereign funds".
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