Press Release No. 07/221

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Press Release No. 07/221

The members of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), the policy steering committee of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have selected Mr. Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, the Minister of Economy and Finance of Italy, as Chairman of the Committee. Mr. Padoa-Schioppa succeeds Mr. Gordon Brown, the U.K.'s former Chancellor of the Exchequer, who resigned in July 2007. Mr. Padoa-Schioppa has accepted the IMFC's chairmanship for a term of up to three years.

Mr. Padoa-Schioppa has been Italy's Economy and Finance Minister since May 2006. He served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 1998 to 2005. Prior to that, Mr. Padoa-Schioppa was chairman of Italy's financial market authority (Consob), and held senior positions in the Bank of Italy and the European Commission. He has served in a leadership capacity on various European and international economic and monetary committees.

The IMFC was established in September 1999 to replace the Interim Committee set up in 1974 and strengthen the role of the primary advisory committee of the IMF's Board of Governors. The IMFC advises the Board of Governors on supervising the management and adaptation of the international monetary system and dealing with sudden disturbances that might threaten the stability of the system. The Committee deliberates on the principal policy issues facing the IMF.

The Committee has 24 members, reflecting the composition of the IMF Executive Board. Each member country that appoints, and each group of countries that elects, an Executive Director, appoints a member of the Committee. Committee members are Governors of the IMF, Ministers, or other officials of comparable rank. The Committee usually meets twice a year-in the spring and ahead of the Annual Meetings in the autumn. Its next meeting will be held on October 20, 2007 in Washington, D.C.