The International Monetary Fund is to call on sovereign wealth funds to volunteer for more comprehensive disclosure to ease concerns in developed markets about the purchasing power of these increasingly powerful players in the international financial system.

Mohsin Khan, director of the IMF’s Middle East and central Asia department, said the IMF, which the G7 group of industrialised nations has mandated to look into the issue, would seek a “voluntary buy-in” to a code of conduct for more transparency from the world’s sovereign funds, many of which are located in the oil-rich Middle East. “If you push, they will push back,” Mr Khan told the FT in an interview.