Our strategy also provides for investment guidelines designed to reduce the risk to which the portfolio is exposed. •  One such guideline specifies a minimum rating for the banks in which the deposits are lodged. •  A second guideline puts a ceiling on the amounts that can be deposited into each bank.
As at the end of August 2008, just before the latest episodes of global financial stress •  some 58 per cent of central bank reserves was invested in money market instruments;  •  26 per cent was invested in US government and other GF government bonds;  •  6 per cent was invested in agency bonds (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac); and  •  the remainder was held in asset-back securities and other money market instruments.