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How May the Fund-Bank Adjust for the 'Rise of the South'?
Despite formal global models of governance, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have functioned like clubs. A 2010 voting realignment at the World Bank changed little in concrete terms and a similar attempt at the IMF could not get off the ground. In the face of functional and normative challenges, especially from under-voiced big developing countries, a more complex formula incorporating criteria for representation other than gross domestic product is needed.
The governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB), gathered in Tokyo for the annual meetings on 9-14 October 2012, had the eurozone crisis as their biggest headache. Other issues got pushed to the side, including one which is even more important for the future of the IMF and WB than the eurozone crisis: reform of the organisations’ governance model to give more voice to the big, fast-growing developing countries.
In April 2012, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) agreed to commit another $75 billion in extra resources for the IMF, via a channel that did not increase their share of the votes. In return, they made it clear that they want substantial changes in IMF governance, including a larger share of votes on the executive board.
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