During the last decade, derivatives markets became an asset class of their own and influenced the financial landscape strongly. While the financial sector contributes positively to overall economic growth in many studies up to the mid nineties, a positive contribution of the financial sector to...

Foreign exchange reserves held by central banks rose to more than 5 trillion dollars in 2006 from 1.5 trillion a decade ago and are expected to rise further in the coming years. Sovereign wealth funds manage assets in excess of 1.5 trillion dollars, and total reserves managed jointly by central...