Bernanke wants sovereign wealth fund conduct code

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday he supports efforts by Group of Seven industrial nations to craft a code of conduct for sovereign wealth funds to help ensure their investments are economic and not politically motivated.

Bernanke, answering questions before the congressional Joint Economic Committee, said the code for the government-controlled funds, fuelled by oil and foreign exchange earnings, should also ensure transparency and proper governance.

"I believe that it's very important that sovereign wealth funds follow that type of behavior and in return for that I think we need to keep our markets open and when they are investing as good investors and good citizens we should allow them access to Rockefeller Center if that happens to be what they want to buy next," Bernanke said. "It's an important issue because they're now larger than hedge funds, collectively."

(Reporting by David Lawder, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama,)