Record #00303Economy archive
Earliest Sovereign Wealth Fund
The Kuwait Investment Authority traces the earliest sovereign wealth fund to the Kuwait Investment Board established in London in February 1953, the origin of its institutional lineage rather than the founding date of the present-day KIA in 1982.
ARCHIVE VISUAL / 01
NOT TO SCALE
Achievement date
1953
1953-02
- Achiever
- Kuwait Investment Authority
- Location
- London, United Kingdom (origin of predecessor)
- Record status
- VerifiedReport an issue
Overview
Archive NoteThe Kuwait Investment Board was established in London in 1953 to invest part of Kuwait's growing oil surplus and reduce long-term reliance on a finite resource. Kuwait did not attain independence as a sovereign state until 1961.
After independence, the Kuwait Investment Office replaced the board in 1965; the current Kuwait Investment Authority was established under Law No. 47 in 1982. Dating the record to 1953 therefore follows an institutional predecessor, not the legal creation of today's authority.
The modern concept and statistical perimeter of sovereign wealth funds were not fixed in 1953. This record follows KIA's published institutional history and its oldest-fund claim, without treating all earlier government reserves or ad hoc investments as equivalent to modern sovereign wealth funds.
Record history
1 Milestones- First achievementKuwait Investment AuthorityLondon, United Kingdom (origin of predecessor)First achievement
Sources
Evidence & ReferencesThe record value on this page is organized from the public sources above. Measurement methods may differ; JiLuDB follows the unified method described for each entry.
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