Brussels, 28/03/2008 (Agence Europe) - In a speech delivered at the OECD in Paris on Friday 28 March, Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson urged sovereign wealth fund (SWF) managers to work with multilateral institutions to draw up a global code of conduct that will reassure recipient countries that SWF investments carry no risks. The political challenge was to “integrate these huge new players into the global financial system in a way that reassures the recipients of investment without casting the funds as potential villains,” he said, pointing out the contribution made by the European Commission to multilateral discussions on such a code of conduct (see EUROPE 9610). “(The sovereign wealth) funds themselves simply cannot afford to underestimate how important reassurance about systems of transparency and governance is in ensuring that unfounded suspicion doesn't mushroom into a protectionism that is in nobody's interest,” Mandelson added, welcoming the agreement the United States had reached with Singapore and the United Arab Emirates that they would not use their SWFs to further political goals. (E.H.)