IFI governance

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IMF reform still stuck in US Congress

26 June 2013

As developing countries continue to complain about the US failing to approve IMF governance reforms (see Update 85, 84), the US Treasury formally resubmitted a request for the approval to US Congress. Brazilian finance minister Guido Mantega’s mid April statement to the IMF spring meetings said: “America is unable and Europe unwilling to follow through with agreed reforms. The institution’s major shareholders are gambling, perhaps unwittingly, with the IMF’s legitimacy and credibility.” The original deadline for the reforms to be ratified was October 2012. In late April, US Treasury under secretary for international affairs Lael Brainard was questioned for nearly two hours by a congressional committee that is considering the request. No time frame has been set on its final approval.