The international profile of sovereign wealth funds is expanding, and the Group of Seven's finance ministers and central bankers are expected to discuss the depth of the funds' risk control, management and accountability when they gather Feb. 9 in Tokyo.
At the same time, however, some people are starting to view the government- controlled funds as white knights who can rescue the west's teetering financial giants from the U.S. subprime-mortgage crisis.
There are four major reasons why sovereign funds have become such a hot topic.