One of the IMF's three roles is lending to members countries with balance of payments difficulties, using resources provided by its other members. Generally, these resources come in two forms: quota contributions tied to voting rights in the institution, and bilateral contributions which do not affect countries' voting rights.
Voting rights
IFI governance
News
World Bank or US Bank?
Rumours that Robert Zoellick will not seek another term as World Bank president after his term ends in June have thrown open the debate about leadership selection at the Bank.
IFI governance
News
IMF still divided on gold sales windfall
The executive board of the IMF continued to disagree, in an early September discussion, on what to do with the $2.76 billion windfall profits from its 2009-10 gold sales.
IFI governance
News
DFID's multilateral funding questioned
The UK parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has questioned the government's rationale for increasing funds to multilateral agencies, such as the World Bank.
IFI governance
Background
Country classifications
A state's relationship with the IFIs and the type of assistance it receives is determined by its country classification. Some crucial types of classifications are: the World Bank's operational lending categories; the Bank's analytical categories used in the World Development Report; the IMF's operational and analytical categories, the IFC's frontier market category; the Bank's fragile state category; and the distinctions used by the Bank and IMF in deciding on and reporting success in governance
IFI governance
News
New World Bank corporate scorecard: adding value?
After discussions with the executive board and staff, but no public consultation, the Bank released a "corporate scorecard" in September, aiming to provide "a snapshot of the Bank's overall performance" to help "strategic dialogue between management and the board on progress made and areas that need attention."
IFI governance
News
World Bank lending falls by 20 per cent
The Bank announced in June that its commitments for the fiscal year ending 30 June, had fallen to $57.4 billion, from an all time peak of $72 billion last year.
Accountability
News
Programmed for Results?
In August, the Bank released a policy paper and draft operational policy for its controversial new Program For Results (P4R) lending instrument, aiming to rush through its approval by the end of the year, despite significant concerns.
Accountability
News
Scandals threaten IFI governance
With the new IMF head and a Bank’s managing director under judicial investigation, questions continue to be asked about IFI governance, while implementation of existing reforms remains slow.
IFI governance
News
IFC weakens World Bank's transparency commitment
The new access to information policy at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private sector arm, has been criticised for being weaker than its public sector counterpart, and for allowing sweeping exceptions.
