“When the market fell, we went into UBS and Citi. But we went in too early. That is part of the ride,” he told a forum of bankers sponsored by Thomson Reuters. GIC made the banking investments at the turn of 2008.

Temasek Holdings, GIC's smaller sister Singapore sovereign fund, suffered a 31 per cent fall in the value of its assets to $127bn between April and November 2008, a senior finance ministry told parliament last month.

However, GIC takes a more conservative approach than Temasek in its investment strategy, said Mr Lee, who was prime minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990. GIC invests Singapore's foreign reserves in a variety of overseas assets, including equities, bonds, property and alternative instruments, in contrast to Temasek, which mainly holds stakes in domestic and foreign companies and banks, including Bank of America and Barclays.