In recent years, there is a trend in the world to separate the official foreign exchange reserve surplus (that is, the excess foreign exchange reserve assets beyond international liquidity and payment capacity) from the balance sheet of the central bank, set up a special government investment institution, namely sovereign wealth fund, or entrust other third-party investment institutions to conduct professional management, so as to "decouple" it from exchange rate or monetary policy and only pursue the highest return on investment. The Singapore Government Investment Corporation (GIC) is the pioneer of this model. China Investment Corporation was established in 2007 with a registered capital of 200 billion US dollars, which is the latest and most important case of this model.

The so-called sovereign wealth, corresponding to private wealth, refers to the public wealth accumulated by a government through specific tax and budget distribution, renewable natural resources income and balance of payments surplus, which is controlled and dominated by the government and usually held in foreign currency.

Traditionally, the management of sovereign wealth is very passive and conservative, and its impact on domestic and international financial markets is also very limited. In recent years, with the soaring international oil price and the expansion of international trade, sovereign wealth has increased rapidly, and its management has become an increasingly important issue. The latest development trend in the world is the establishment of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and the establishment of professional investment institutions that are usually independent of the central bank and the Ministry of Finance to manage these funds. By the beginning of 2008, the assets managed by global sovereign wealth funds had reached about $20,000 to $3 trillion, most of which were distributed in oil-exporting countries and export-oriented economies.