International Monetary Fund

International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund (IMF, or Fund) came into official existence on 27 December 1945, when twenty-nine countries signed its Articles of Agreement (its charter), which had been agreed upon at a conference held in Bretton Woods, (in New Hampshire, United States), 1–22 July 1944. The IMF commenced financial operations 1 March 1947. Today the IMF has near global membership of 182 countries. The Fund employs approximately 2,700 staff members from 122 countries. The Fund is headed by a managing director, who is also chairman of an executive board of twenty-four executive directors. The five largest members—the members that make the largest contributions to the fund, namely the United States, Japan, Germany, France, and Britain—are each entitled to appoint an executive director. By tradition, the managing director is a European. Most staff members work at the Fund headquarters in Washington, D.C., though a few are assigned to small offices in Paris, Geneva, Tokyo, and at the United Nations in New York. Some represent the IMF on temporary assignment in member countries. At present about seventy of these resident representatives are assigned to sixty-four member countries.

Purpose

The purpose of the IMF as established by its charter can be summarized as follows: (1) to provide the means for consultation and collaboration between members on international monetary issues, (2) to promote exchange stability and to maintain orderly exchange arrangements among members so as to facilitate international trade, (3) to assist in the creation and expansion of markets in which members can exchange currencies without restriction, and (4) to support members that are faced with a shortage of foreign currency by making the financial resources of the IMF temporarily available to them under adequate safeguards.

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