The International Monetary Fund and its role as a guarantor of global financial stability

Abstract

Given the growing real and financial integration of economies worldwide, there is a need for the presence of supranational mechanisms to address crisis situations. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is the multilateral institution at the core of the global financial safety net (GFSN). The swift development of other elements of this net since the last global financial crisis, such as the regional financing arrangements, has made the system sounder but also poses fresh challenges. The broad membership of the IMF, the volume of its resources and its accumulated global experience in crisis management make the organisation key to shoring up global monetary and financial stability. However, the IMF is subject to recurrent discussions about its governance and lending policies, including the size and composition of its resources, and the distribution of power within the organisation. The IMF is currently immersed in the Fifteenth General Review of Quotas. The backdrop to this negotiation is the risk that, in the absence of a satisfactory agreement on the size and distribution of its resources, the IMF’s financial sufficiency and its degree of representativeness among its members may be diminished in the coming years. This might significantly undermine the stabilising capacity of the GFSN