Sovereign Wealth Funds as Public Institutional Investors in the Global Financial Markets

The aim of the article is to present the issue of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF), which experience nowadays a dynamic grow. SWF are differently classified, which - to a great extent is due to their lack of transparency, as well as arbitrary treatment by particular countries. The grow of prices of commodities, balance of payments surpluses in Asian countries (mainly China), widening of global imbalances, may contribute to the grow of the number, as well, as value of assets in their hands. The assessment of the influence of SWF on the global financial market is ambiguous, however, the dominant view treats the SWF as the stabilising force for the global finance, which was evident during the last financial crises