Order Code RS22729
September 21, 2007
International Monetary Fund (IMF): Financial
Reform and the Possible Sale of IMF Gold
Martin A. Weiss and Jonathan E. Sanford
Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade
Summary
The International Monetary Fund faces a unique set of challenges in the current
economic environment. With the continuing growth in the emerging market economies,
the demand for IMF assistance has shrunk dramatically. In order to prevent a future need
for an IMF-bailout, many emerging market countries are accumulating vast amounts of
foreign exchange reserves. In 2006, IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato created
a panel of “eminent persons”to advise the IMF about reform of its income model, given
the lower demand for IMF lending. The panel proposed the creation of an endowment
that would be funded either with quota resources or through the sale of gold from the
IMF reserves. This has raised questions among Members of Congress about the benefits
of selling IMF gold and the presumed need for reform of the IMF’s income model. This
report discusses these issues and will be updated as events warrant.
Decreasing IMF Finances
As the IMF enters its seventh decade, it faces a broad range of challenges — most
pressing of which is its deteriorating balance sheet. Outstanding IMF credit has decreased
from a peak of $82 billion in 1999 to $20.4 billion in 2006, over half of which is lent to
Turkey.1 These are the lowest loan levels the IMF has seen in 25 years.2 Many of the
IMF’s middle-income and developing country borrowers, including Thailand, Russia,
Argentina, and Brazil, have been repaying their IMF loans early. These early payments
may also signal that, with the emergence of a new class of creditor nations including
China and many Persian Gulf countries, developing country borrowers no longer view
IMF loans as attractive. Furthermore, some prefer not to put themselves in a position
where they must take the IMF’s policy advice as a condition for access to IMF loans.
1 International Monetary Fund, “IMF Financial Activities — Update January 18, 2007.”
2 Oxford Analytica Daily Brief, “IMF could cut spending to cover losses,” November 30, 2006.

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Total IMF resources at the end of May 2007 were $340 billion, of which $248 billion
were usable resources. However, the IMF possesses only a small portion of this total.
Therefore, it cannot invest money from its quota resources in order to raise money to fund
its operations.3 With a decline in lending has come a decline in operating revenue. The
IMF is reportedly projecting a $105 million income shortfall for its FY2007 budget.4
Compounding the IMF’s fiscal challenges, many emerging market economies are
rapidly accumulating central bank reserves in order to avoid having to borrow from the
IMF in the future (Table 1). Additionally, were a major financial crisis to occur, it is
unclear how effective the IMF would be in shoring up the financial markets. Every day,
over $2 trillion changes hands in world currency markets. In the 1970s and earlier, the
IMF could loan countries enough money to defend their currencies against short-term
speculative pressure. Most experts agree that the IMF could no longer do this today and,
if it were to lend $30 billion to a medium size country to help it defend its currency
against widespread perceptions that it was overvalued, the money from the IMF loan
would be lost very quickly and the country would be forced to devalue anyway.5 Experts
generally agree that the IMF must now work with market forces rather than against them
if it wishes to help countries deal with currency or balance of payments crises.
Table 1. Ratio of Reserves to Imports of Goods and Services
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
Emerging Markets and
46.3
44.7
49.5
55.3
60.5
62.7
66.4
71.4
75.1
Developing Countries
Regional Groups
31.2
39.1
45.5
46.9
48.3
53.6
57.2
63.6
67.4
Sub-Sahara
28.7
33.6
33.2
31.2
28.0
34.7
38.0
42.1
45.5
Excluding Nigeria and
30.2
33.2
31.0
35.3
34.4
34.0
31.1
34.8
35.4
South Africa
Central and Eastern Europe
38.8
34.6
34.8
41.1
39.3
34.8
35.2
31.9
29.3
Commonwealth of
17.6
30.5
34.4
41.0
52.1
64.3
75.7
96.0
109.1
Independent States
Russia
17.2
40.6
44.6
52.9
71.5
92.7
107.2
135.2
152.7
Developing Asia
58.6
49.2
58.4
68.1
74.6
79.6
81.9
87.9
93.9
China
83.3
67.4
79.7
89.0
91.1
101.5
115.5
124.3
132.2
India
52.9
52.6
65.0
90.0
107.1
97.0
72.5
70.4
68.6
Middle East
64.0
75.5
78.7
74.3
78.5
77.9
90.5
98.3
97.9
Western Hemisphere
38.0
35.9
37.3
40.5
47.6
44.8
43.8
44.0
46.2
Brazil
37.6
43.5
49.2
61.1
77.2
65.9
54.8
71.3
86.2
Mexico
20.4
18.6
24.2
27.3
31.4
29.8
30.5
26.2
25.9
Source: Barry Eichengreen, “A Blueprint for IMF Reform: More than just a Lender,” International Finance, Fall 2007
3 Quotas are, in effect, a line of credit. When the IMF makes a loan, it borrows from its member
countries and it relends that money to its own borrower countries. Repayments from IMF
borrowers are used to repay countries for quota resources used. Countries pay the IMF interest
for their loans and the IMF pays interest to the countries whose quotas are used. The difference
in these interest rates produces the income the IMF currently uses to fund its operations.
4 International Business & Finance Daily, “Shortfall for IMF Income Up to to $105 Million for
FY 2007,” January 9, 2007.
5 See, for example, testimony by Dr. Adam Lerrick before the Senate Banking Committee’s
Subcommittee on Security and International Trade and Finance, August 2, 2007.

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IMF Reform
To stimulate discussion on possible reform options, outgoing IMF Managing
Director Rodrigo Rato convened a committee of eminent persons to examine the IMF’s
income model. Headed by Andrew Crockett, former head of the Bank for International
Settlements, the committee also included former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan
Greenspan and former European Central Bank President, Jean Claude Trichet.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the likely nominee to succeed Mr. Rato, has described the
recommendations as “eminently sensible,” and will likely pursue many of them within the
next year.6
As the Crockett Report illustrates, the IMF’s income derives largely from a single
source — the difference between the rate the IMF charges when it lends and the rate the
IMF pays countries for use of their quota resources. This creates a perverse situation,
where, according to Mr. Crockett: “when the world economy is not doing well and the
Fund has to lend in crisis situations, it is well furnished with resources. When the Fund
is successful in stabilizing the global economy, then it is short of resources.”7
The Crockett Report Recommendations. The Committee released its report
on January 31, 2007.8 The report made several recommendations to provide sufficient
financing for the IMF’s three major functions: (1) providing a source of short-term
finance for countries suffering from balance of payments crises; (2) providing a public
good of surveillance of the international economy; and (3) providing bilateral technical
assistance to countries as they pursue market-oriented economic reform.
To meet these goals, the Committee recommends (1) revising the IMF’s investment
operations; (2) creating an endowment fund; (3) charging separately for IMF services;
and (4) eliminating the IMF’s waiver on reimbursement of the administrative charges for
the IMF’s concessional lending facilitates. The Committee rejected the option of
financing the IMF’s oversight and research functions through a periodic levy on member
nations due to fear that this would overly politicize the IMF’s activities. According to the
Committee: “subjecting the Fund’s administrative expenditure to national budgetary
procedures might indirectly threaten the independence of the Fund’s policy advice.”9
Managing Director Rato is currently studying these recommendations and is expected to
introduce reform proposals prior to the IMF’s fall 2007 annual meetings.
The Committee made two recommendations regarding the IMF’s existing investment
options: (1) broaden the IMF’s investment mandate for existing reserves by extending
portfolio duration beyond the current 1-3 year benchmark index and expand the types of
financial instruments that the IMF is allowed to invest, and (2) use quota resources
6 Dominique Strauss-Kahn, “My Vision for the IMF,” Wall Street Journal, September 6, 2007.
7 Transcript of a Press Briefing on the Final Report by the Committee to Study Sustainable
Long-term Financing of the IMF (Crockett Report), January 31, 2007. Available at
[http://www.imf.org/external/np/tr/2007/tr070131.htm].
8 Committee to Study Sustainable Long-term financing of the IMF, The International Monetary
Fund, January 2007. Document is available at [http://imf.org/external/np/oth/2007/013107.pdf]
9 Ibid, p. 8.

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subscribed by member countries to invest in marketable securities. The Committee also
recommended that the IMF create an endowment fund through the sale of 12.9 million
ounces of gold held in its reserves. Gold sales have been used in the past to generate
income. In 1957, for example, gold was sold to create a Special Reserve to cover Fund
losses incurred early in its existence. Between 1976 and 1980, 50 million ounces were
sold by public auction to fund special loans to low-income countries.
IMF Gold. The IMF holds 103.4 million ounces of gold in reserves, valued at $68.7
billion at current market prices.10 The IMF acquired virtually all of this gold through four
types of transactions. First, before they were revised in 1978, the IMF Articles of
Agreement required that 25 percent of a country’s quota subscriptions was to be paid in
gold. This was the largest source of IMF gold. Second, all payments of charges (i.e.
interest on members’ use of IMF credit) were originally made in gold. Third, a member
wanting to obtain the currency of another member could do so by selling gold to the IMF.
(South African gold sales between 1970 and 1971, for example, were the main such
source of gold.) Fourth, members could use gold to repay the IMF for previously
extended IMF credit.
In 1978, IMF members adopted an amendment to the Articles of Agreement allowing
each country to determine its own exchange rate system. The amendment officially
severed the link between currency and gold. IMF member countries were prohibited from
defining the value of their currency in terms of gold and the IMF was prohibited from
lending gold or defining its assets in terms of gold. Countries could use any exchange rate
system (other than using gold as a base) for defining the value of their currencies. Prior
IMF approval of exchange rate changes would no longer be required. Since the 1978
amendment, the use of gold in the IMF’s operations has been severely limited. If an 85
percent majority approves, the IMF may sell gold outright on the basis of prevailing
market prices. It may also accept gold in the discharge of a member’s obligations, using
the market price at the time of acceptance. All other transactions, such as gold purchases,
loans, leases, swaps, or use of gold as collateral, are prohibited.
In 1995, the IMF Executive Board undertook a review of the role of gold in the IMF
in a post-gold standard international economy. Following this review, there was broad
agreement from members of the IMF Executive Board that the IMF’s policy on gold
should be governed by several principles including:
! As an undervalued asset held by the IMF, gold provides fundamental
strength to its balance sheet. Any mobilization of IMF gold should avoid
weakening its overall financial position; and
! The IMF should continue to hold a relatively large amount of gold among
its assets, not only for prudential reasons, but also to meet unforeseen11
contingencies.
10 The price of gold on July 31, 2007 was $664.15 per ounce. See [http://goldprice.org/]
11 See “Gold in the IMF: a Factsheet,” International Monetary Fund,
[http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/gold.htm].

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Issues for Congress
In the past, proposals to sell IMF gold reserves have been unpopular among some
Members of Congress. Some have argued that there is a potential lack of IMF
transparency. Some claim that the gold held by the IMF belongs to the member nations
and it is not the IMF’s place to propose gold sales to fund current operating expenses.
Some also claim that gold sales have the potential to weaken the global price of gold and
the effect on the IMF balance sheet is unclear.
In the late 1990s, limited gold-sales were proposed to finance the IMF’s initial
contribution to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. Due to the
concerns raised above, the Clinton Administration and several members of Congress
strongly objected to these plans, and a compromise was reached at the September 1999
IMF annual meetings, which authorized off-market transactions in gold of up to 14
million ounces to help finance IMF participation in the HIPC program. Between
December 1999 and April 2000, transactions involving a total of 12.9 million ounces of
gold were carried out between the IMF and two members, Brazil and Mexico, that had
financial obligations to the IMF. Gold was sold at the market price and profits were
placed in a special IMF HIPC account. At the same time, the IMF accepted back the gold
sold to Brazil and Mexico in settlement of their financial obligations to the Bank. The
result was that the balance of the IMF’s holdings of physical gold remained unchanged,
although its usable resources shrank.12
Under Article V, Sec. 12 of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement, approval of gold sales
by the IMF requires an 85 percent IMF voting majority. The United States has almost a
17 percent vote and could thus block any sale of IMF gold. Understanding this “virtual”
veto, Congress, in 1999, enacted legislation in the FY 2000 Consolidated Appropriations
Act
that authorized the United States to vote at the IMF in favor of a limited sale of IMF
gold to fund the IMF’s participation in HIPC debt cancellation. However, the act requires
the explicit consent of Congress before the Executive Branch can support any future gold
sales.13
Prior to the adoption of this law, the requirement for congressional agreement was
less clear. In 1976, Congress approved legislation, section 3 of P.L. 94-564, which
prohibited the Administration from supporting any sale of IMF gold that would be used
to create a trust fund “for the special benefit of a single member, or of a particular
segment of the membership, of the Fund.”14 Subsequently, Congress approved section
4(a)(1) of P.L. 95-147 which stated, in part, that the United States could not support the
sale of IMF gold for “the establishment of any additional trust fund whereby resources of
12 The IMF may hold gold as an asset, but it cannot lend gold nor can it use gold as security for
borrowing funds. The transactions in 1999 shifted money out of the IMF’s general resources
account into a special fund for HIPC debt cancellation. To offset this deduction, the IMF revalued
some of its gold by an equal amount. See Jonathan E. Sanford, “IMF Gold and the World Bank’s
Unfunded HIPC Mandate,” Development Policy Review, January 2004.
13 P.L. 106-113, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2000, Sec. 504(d).
14 P.L. 94-564, A Bill to Provide for Amendment of the Bretton Woods Agreement.

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the International Monetary Fund would be used for the special benefit of a single member,
or of a particular segment of the membership, of the Fund.”15 Were these provisions of
law still in effect, the Secretary of the Treasury might arguably be able to support a sale
of IMF gold for the purpose of establishing a trust fund if the proceeds would benefit the
whole membership of the Fund, as might be the case with the present proposal for a sale
that would help offset IMF operating expenses. With the passage of the 1999 law,
however, that option is not possible and an act of Congress is required before the
Administration can support any sale of IMF gold.
The Crockett panel also proposed, in addition to gold sales, that the IMF should
augment its income through a more aggressive investment program. The IMF would
borrow money from its member countries by drawing on their quota resources to fund
these investments. The sale of gold and the use of quota resources were not posed as
alternatives. Nevertheless, it could be argued that if gold is not sold to fund the proposed
endowment plan, more quota resources will be needed to fund the investment program.
Questions might be raised about this use of quota resources. First, the IMF’s quota
resources were originally intended to finance the IMF’s loan operations, not to subsidize
its administrative costs. Their use for the latter purpose deserves careful consideration.
Second, only the countries with strong currencies are likely to be asked to provide
permanent low-cost loans to the IMF for this purpose.
As the IMF deliberates on the Crockett Report recommendations, Congress may
wish to consider the following questions in anticipation of a potential request to authorize
the sale of a portion of IMF gold reserves: (1) Are gold sales desirable compared to the
other alternatives for raising revenue? (2) If gold sales are not authorized, should the IMF
fund its new investment plan by borrowing quota resources from the United States and
other countries with strong currencies without also asking other countries to bear some
of the costs? (3) How should the United States raise the money — be it on-budget or off-
budget — to finance its share of the investment plan? (4) Will the IMF be more effective
if it is autonomously financed rather than being dependent solely on income from its loan
operations to fund in its administrative budget? In particular, will the IMF be more
effective in the exercise of its surveillance and its other economic oversight functions if
these activities are funded autonomously through an endowment or investment plan?
Alternatively, some in Congress might wish to reconsider the raison d’etre of the
IMF in an international economy marked by rapidly growing emerging market reserves
and capital flows from the emerging to the developed countries. The Fund’s three current
functions – crisis lending, technical assistance and surveillance of the international
monetary system – might be reoriented within the IMF or allocated to other institutions
to better reflect the new reality. For example, the IMF’s function as lender of last resort
could be performed by regional reserve-pooling arrangements such as that developed in
Asia under the Chiang Mai Initiative, or through enhanced functions of the Bank for
International Settlement. The Fund’s technical assistance functions could be provided by
the multilateral development banks. A renewed IMF could focus on its member countries’
economic policies and on surveillance of the international exchange rate and monetary
systems. Such reforms will likely be on the IMF’s agenda over the next several years.
15 P.L. 95-147, A Bill to Authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to Invest Public Moneys.