Singapore, Norway and Abu Dhabi have been asked by the International Monetary Fund to take the lead in drawing up disclosure benchmarks for sovereign wealth funds, Lee Kuan Yew, the former Singapore prime minister and chairman of one of the world's biggest sovereign funds, has said.

The IMF's move comes as countries with sovereign wealth funds and recipient states skirmished at the World Economic Forum in Davos over the need for a code of conduct for such state-owned investment funds.