Creating a crisis firewall. To meet ever increasing financing needs of countries hit by the global financial crisis and help strengthen global economic and financial stability, the Fund has greatly bolstered its lending capacity since the onset of the global crisis. It has done so both by obtaining commitments to increase quota subscriptions of member countries—the IMF's main source of financing—and securing large temporary borrowing agreements from member countries, including recent pledges of $456 billion.

Stepping up crisis lending. The IMF has overhauled its general lending framework to make it better suited to country needs giving greater emphasis on crisis prevention, and has streamlined conditions attached to loans. Since the start of the crisis, it has committed well over $300 billion in loans to its member countries.

Helping the world’s poorest. The IMF undertook an unprecedented reform of its policies toward low-income countries and quadrupled its concessional lending.

Sharpening IMF analysis and policy advice. IMF monitoring, forecasts, and policy advice, informed by the Fund’s global perspective and experience from previous crises, have been in high demand as the crisis evolved. The IMF is also contributing to the ongoing effort to draw lessons for the reform of the global financial architecture, including through its work with the Group of Twenty (G-20) industrialized and emerging market economies.

Reforming the IMF’s governance. To strengthen its legitimacy, in November 2010, the IMF agreed on wide-ranging governance reforms to reflect the increasing importance of emerging market countries. The reforms, expected to be effective by October 2012, also ensure that smaller developing countries will retain their influence in the IMF.

Reforming the IMF’s lending framework

To better support countries during the global economic crisis, the IMF beefed up its lending capacity and approved a major overhaul of how it lends money by offering higher amounts and tailoring loan terms to countries’ varying strengths and circumstances.

Credit line for strong performers. The Flexible Credit Line (FCL), introduced in April 2009 and further enhanced in August 2010, is a lending tool for countries with very strong fundamentals that provides large and upfront access to IMF resources, as a form of insurance for crisis prevention. There are no policy conditions to be met once a country has been approved for the credit line. Colombia, Mexico, and Poland have been provided combined access of over $100 billion under the FCL (no drawings have been made under these arrangements). FCL use has been found to lead to lower borrowing costs and increased room for policy maneuver.

Access to liquidity on flexible terms. Heightened regional or global stress can affect countries that would not likely be at risk of crisis. Providing rapid and adequate short-term liquidity to such crisis bystanders during periods of stress could bolster market confidence, limit contagion, and reduce the overall cost of crises. The Precautionary and Liquidity Line (PLL) is designed to meet the liquidity needs of member countries with sound economic fundamentals but with some remaining vulnerabilities—Macedonia and Morocco have used the PLL.

Reformed terms for IMF lending. Structural performance criteria have been discontinued for all IMF loans, including for programs with low-income countries. Structural reforms will continue to be part of IMF-supported programs, but have become more focused on areas critical to a country’s recovery.

Emphasis on social protection. The IMF is helping governments to protect and even increase social spending, including social assistance. In particular, the IMF is promoting measures to increase spending on, and improve the targeting of, social safety net programs that can mitigate the impact of the crisis on the most vulnerable in society.

Helping the world’s poorest

In response to the global financial crisis, the IMF undertook an unprecedented reform of its policies toward low-income countries. As a result, IMF programs are now more flexible and tailored to the individual needs of low-income countries—with streamlined conditionality, higher concessionality and more emphasis on safeguarding social spending.

Increase in resources. Resources available to low-income countries through the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust over the period 2009–2014 were boosted to $17 billion, consistent with the call by G‑20 leaders in April 2009 of doubling the IMF’s concessional lending capacity and providing $6 billion additional concessional financing over the next two to three years. The IMF’s concessional lending to low-income countries amounted to $3.8 billion in 2009, an increase of about four times the historical levels. Concessional commitments from 2009 to 2012 totalled $9.8 billion.

More flexibility.Partly because of the crisis, the IMF has generally factored in higher deficits and spending, and has made financial assistance programs more flexible. On average, for all of sub-Saharan Africa, fiscal deficits widened by about 2 percent of GDP in 2009.

Establishment of a Post-Catastrophe Debt Relief (PCDR) Trust. This allows the IMF to join international debt relief efforts for very poor countries that are hit by the most catastrophic of natural disasters. PCDR-financed debt relief amounted to $268 million in 2010.

Creating a crisis firewall

As a key part of efforts to overcome the global financial crisis, the Group of Twenty industrialized and emerging market economies (G-20) agreed in April 2009 to increase borrowed resources available to the IMF (complementing its quota resources) by up to $500 billion (which tripled the total pre-crisis lending resources of about $250 billion) to support growth in emerging market and developing countries.

In April 2010, the Executive Board adopted a proposal on an expanded and more flexible New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB), under which the NAB grew to about SDR 367.5 billion (about $560 billion), with 13 new participating countries and institutions, including a number of emerging market countries that made significant contributions to this large expansion. On November 15, 2011, the National Bank of Poland joined the NAB as a new participant, bringing the total to about SDR 370 billion (about $570 billion) and the number of new participants to 14 (once all have joined).

In December 2011, euro area member countries committed to providing additional resources to the IMF of up to 150 billion euro (about $200 billion). Following the request of the IMF’s membership last year through the International Monetary and Financial Committee and the general support by the G-20 leaders at the Cannes summit, the IMF Executive Board discussed the adequacy of the Fund’s resources in January 2012, with a view to increasing them through new bilateral borrowing. Member countries have pledged $456 billion in additional resources to boost the Fund’s firepower.

The 14th General Review of Quotas, approved in December 2010, will double the IMF’s permanent resources to SDR 476.8 billion (about $737 billion). There will be a rollback in the NAB credit arrangements from SDR 370 billion to SDR 182 billion which will become effective when participants pay for their 14th Review quota increases.

In addition to increasing the Fund’s own lending capacity, in 2009, the membership agreed to make a general allocation of SDRs equivalent to $250 billion, resulting in a near ten-fold increase in SDRs. This represents a significant increase in own reserves for many countries, including low-income countries.

Sharpening IMF analysis and policy advice

In the wake of the 2011 Triennial Surveillance Review (TSR), the IMF has undertaken major initiatives to strengthen surveillance to respond to a more globalized and interconnected world. These initiatives include revamping the legal framework for surveillance to cover spillovers (how economic policies in one country can affect others), deepening analysis of risks and financial systems, stepping up assessments of members’ external positions, and responding more promptly to concerns of the membership.

As part of broader efforts to make progress on this action plan, on July 18, 2012, the Executive Board adopted a new Decision on Bilateral and Multilateral Surveillance (Integrated Surveillance Decision) to strengthen the underlying legal framework for surveillance. It also discussed a Pilot External Stability Report that presented a broad and multilaterally consistent analysis of the external sector for the world’s largest economies. In September 2012, the Executive Board endorsed a new Financial Surveillance Strategy that proposes concrete and prioritized steps to further strengthen financial surveillance.

Moreover, risk analysis has been enhanced, including by taking a cross-country perspective, and early warning exercises are being carried out jointly with the Financial Stability Board. Analyses on linkages between the real economy, the financial sector, and external stability are being strengthened. Work has also been done on mapping and understanding the implications of rising financial and trade interconnectedness for surveillance (including spillovers) and for lending to strengthen the global financial safety net.

With more than 200 million people unemployed across the world, and income inequality on the rise in many countries, the Fund has set up an internal “Working Group on Jobs and Growth,” which has recommended steps to enhance the Fund’s effectiveness in helping member countries achieve their goals regarding growth, employment creation, and income distribution.

Reform of IMF governance to better reflect the global economy

A top priority for the IMF’s legitimacy and effectiveness has been the completion of governance reform.

On December 15, 2010, the Board of Governors approved far-reaching governance reforms under the 14th General Review of Quotas. The package includes a doubling of quotas, which will result in more than a 6 percentage point shift in quota share to dynamic emerging market and developing countries while protecting the voting shares of the poorest member countries. The reform will also lead to a more representative, fully-elected Executive Board.

To become effective, an amendment to the Articles of Agreement will need to be accepted by three-fifths of the member countries, having 85 percent of the total voting power and members having no less than 70 percent of total quotas on November 5, 2010 will need to consent to their quota increases.

The agreed package builds on quota and voice reforms agreed in April 2008 and became effective on March 3, 2011. Under these reforms, 54 members received an increase in their quotas—with China, Korea, India, Brazil, and Mexico as the largest beneficiaries. Another 135 members, including low-income countries, saw an increase in their voting power as a result of the increase in basic votes, which will remain a fixed percentage of total votes. Combined with the 14th Review, the shift in quota share to dynamic emerging market and developing countries will be 9 percentage points.