Press Release No. 08/105

Press Release No. 08/105

International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) Chairman Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa has tendered his resignation from the chairmanship of the International Monetary Fund's policy advisory committee. With Mr. Padoa-Schioppa's resignation from the panel chairmanship, which was effective May 8, 2008, the IMFC will begin the process of selecting a new chairman.

IMF Managing Director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, made the following statement:

"I pay tribute to Mr. Padoa-Schioppa's invaluable service to the IMF and its membership. His immense experience in national, European and international policy-making, and his deep commitment to the goals of international monetary cooperation have been a great benefit and inspiration to all of us. Though his tenure as Chairman may have been brief, he played an invaluable role in working with me and the membership on critical reforms, and we were able to secure support for significant changes in IMF quotas and voice and on a new income model for the Fund. His strong intellect and quiet diplomacy were instrumental in bringing these reforms forward, and his chairmanship will be remembered as marking the beginning of a new era in which a stronger IMF will be better positioned to promote global financial stability and serve its universal membership."

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. He was named in October 2007 to a term of up to three years as Chairman of the IMFC (see Press Release No. 07/221).

The IMFC, which is comprised of finance ministers and central bank governors, has operated since September 30, 1999 following a resolution of the IMF Board of Governors that transformed the Interim Committee of the Board of Governors on the International Monetary System (usually known simply as the Interim Committee), which had been established in 1974, into the IMFC. The change signified a strengthening of the role of the primary advisory committee of the Board of Governors. As the Interim Committee did, the IMFC usually meets twice a year before the Bank-Fund Annual Meetings in the autumn, and at what are referred to as the Spring Meetings.

The Board of Governors resolution on the IMFC stipulates that its Chair is selected by the Committee to serve for such period as the Committee determines. In line with the practice so far for the selection of the 15 chairmen of the IMFC and its predecessor, the Interim Committee, the process of selecting the Chair involves consultations among IMFC members at the level of IMF Executive Directors and in capitals until a consensus on a new IMFC Chair is reached.