Press Release No. 08/09

Press Release: Statement by Andrew Crockett Chair of the Committee to Study Sustainable Long-Term Financing of the IMF

January 24, 2008

Andrew Crockett, Chair of the Committee to Study Sustainable Long-Term Financing of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement today in Washington, DC:

"A year ago, the Committee to Study Sustainable Long-Term Financing of the IMF, which I chaired, submitted a report recommending a new income model for the IMF that "would be more appropriate for the various activities undertaken by the Fund, and would be more responsive to evolving conditions in the world economy and in the role of the Fund itself." While the Committee's mandate did not include a review of the Fund's administrative expenditures, the Committee noted that it had "proceeded on the assumption that new revenue measures will be evaluated in conjunction with a careful review of the appropriate level of Fund expenditures by Fund Management and the Executive Board."

"The IMF's Managing Director, Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, recently met with the Committee to provide an update on the progress made by the IMF since the report was finalized. Mr. Strauss-Kahn described the status of discussions in the Fund's Executive Board on a new income model, and outlined his vision for an integrated approach to income and expenditure that includes refocusing the Fund's work on the areas where it has a comparative advantage, and modernizing the Fund's work practices. Securing the Fund's budgetary sustainability through an integrated approach to income and expenditure is part of this process.

"The further development of the link between the income and expenditure sides of the Fund's finances is to be welcomed and conforms with the working assumption used by the Committee at the time of preparing its report. In this context it may be recalled that the Committee had proposed a package of measures designed to better align the Fund's income base with its diverse activities, and to put it in a position to better respond to the challenges of the global economy. These measures included expanding the Fund's investment activities, investing part of the Fund's quota resources, creating an income-generating endowment "through the proceeds of a limited sale of Fund gold, resuming reimbursement of the Fund for the administrative costs of managing the program of financial assistance to low income countries, and charging for the services the Fund provides to member countries. It is expected that the Fund's Management and the Executive Board will be able to progress expeditiously on both the revenue and expenditure side of the Fund's finances."

Andrew Crockett is the President of JP Morgan Chase International, and chaired the "Committee of Eminent Persons to Study Sustainable Long-Term Financing of the IMF". The other members of the committee are Mohamed A. El-Erian, Alan Greenspan, Tito Mboweni, Guillermo Ortíz, Hamad Al-Sayari, Jean-Claude Trichet, and Zhou Xiaochuan.