I've already put up this on General Forum a few days back, but have no replies despite some 250+ views. I'm guessing Economics Forum is a more apt place for it.My aim is to understand a bit more about central banks, swfs and interaction with IMF.1) Central banks of countries usually have the foreign exchange reserves of the country (that is brought in by exports). Say for China, the Central Bank will hold all the USD currencies inside China (basically buy USD from the exporters by giving CNY). 2) The SWFs of different countries have their primary source of funds as the foreign exchange reserve (like oil or exports - Saudi Arabia, CHina, for e.g.). Does this mean that the asset of the central banks and the asset of the SWFs overlap with each other. Central banks and SWFs are two separate entities with distinctly different assets - is this understanding correct?3) Central banks have to keep some reserves with IMF. Are these reserves always in hard-USD cash. I checked out some IMF pages regarding central banks (Chinese CB IMF reserve link is here: China IMF reserve). It seems that even if these central banks have invested the foreign reserves in notes or have swap/derivative assets, they are counted for IMF reserve. I am not very clear on why this IMF reserve is reqd/how it is used and what kind of assets in possession of central banks can be considered in this regard.Also do assets of SWFs count for this IMF reserve?Many thanks for the answers/discussions

Hi! I guess the reason for not getting any answers is that these are very board questions to which there is no simple answer (I dont mean this a critique, it is just hard to answer the questions). Nevertheless I will give it a try. 1)Y. Central banks (CB) hold the country's FX reserve. Again there are many types of reserves and the links between government and central banks can be quite different in different countries. 2)Y. SWF and CBs are different entities. They can however overlap but in "good" countries they don't. In Norway the CB manages the SWF but it is kept separate.3)N. I think you have this wrong. The numbers you are referring to is not reserves kept at the IMF. These are just IMF statistics. CBs hold a form of reserves with the IMF in the form of SDR (a synthetic currency that is a basket of USD, JPY, GBP and EUR).I would recommend that you search eg The Economist (the magazine) for SWF, they have had several good articles about this subject. Please come back if you have other questions! HTH

Here is my understanding (for Russia):1. CB buys part of export revenues in the open market (where exporters sell voluntarily or when are required to sell a certain portion of hard currency revenues). So CB is not the only holder of the country's foreign currency assets: some is left on banks' and their clients' balance sheets.2. SWF is separate from the CB but holds part of its assets on deposits in the CB, which can be either local or foreign currency-denominated. Other assets include bonds and stocks portfolio, which may be managed by either CB or other entities.3. (Here I am less informed.) Compulsory contribution to IMF is rather an expense than a refundable deposit. Besides, there can be voluntary loans in whatever currency, including SDR basket.