• The Global Transparency Resource
• Importance of Transparency
• IFI's Introduced
  • AfDB - African Development Bank
  • ADB - Asian Development Bank
  • BIS - Bank for International Settlements
  • BSTDB - Black Sea Trade and Development Bank
  • CDB - Caribbean Development Bank
  • CEB - Council of Europe Development Bank
  • EBRD - European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
  • ECB - European Central Bank
  • EIB - European Investment Bank
  • IADB - Inter-American Development Bank
  • IFC - International Finance Corporation
  • IMF - International Monetary Fund
  • IsDB - Islamic Development Bank
  • OECD - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
  • WB - World Bank
  • WTO - World Trade Organisation

IMF International Monetary Fund (Washington DC, United States of America)

The International Monetary Fund has become quite well known and very influential over the years. Initially it was set up to help bring some stability to the world's financial system following the Second World War. However over the years its mandate and its influence have increased dramatically. These days the IMF plays an important part in the world's financial system. It has also become very controversial over the years as its policies have clearly favoured some countries over others.

The main purpose of the International Monetary Fund is to ensure that the world's financial system remains sound. The main way that it does this is by allowing countries that have a balance of payments problem to borrow money for short periods. The idea is that this should prevent large fluctuations in currency values and make sure that the financial system remains relatively stable. The IMF has also taken on the role of helping to promote cooperation between countries when it comes to monetary policy. While this is obviously voluntary most countries have gone along with it because the stability is in their best interests.

Over the years the role of the IMF has expanded as has its influence on world affairs. Initially it was created after the Second World War to help stabilize the economy. However as more countries joined it found that it had more influence. It has taken advantage of this influence and expanded its role. These days it has added promoting international trade, reducing unemployment and promoting sustainable economic growth to its mandate. It has also decided that one of the roles of the IMF should be to help reduce poverty. This has led them into all sorts of controversy.

While it is far from the most important thing that it does the thing that get the most attention when it comes to the IMF is the money that it loans to poorer countries. This money can be very helpful to the country that receives the loan in terms of helping them with their development. The problem is that in most cases these loans come with conditions attached to them. Usually these conditions require that the economy be liberalized or in some cases large cuts in government spending. In many cases these conditions are often not in the receiving countries best interest.

The conditions that the loans the IMF gives out come with have caused all kinds of controversy over the years. The main criticisms are that the conditions often increase the level of poverty and cause the social structure of the country to become less stable. This is contrary to the state goals of the IMF. Perhaps the biggest criticism is that the conditions reflect the ideology and the beliefs of the Western nations that control the IMF and the conditions are in their best interests rather than in those of the country that is receiving the loan.