IMF board approves quota shifts, governance reform
17 Dec 2010
The board of governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday approved reforms that will shift more voting power to emerging-market countries like China and India.
The IMF board also completed its 14th quota review with a doubling of quotas to approximately SDR 476.8 billion (about $733.9 billion) along with the realignment of quota shares among members.
The proposed quota changes will leave China with the third largest voting share while India will have the fifth largest voting share or quota.
The top 10 IMF members in the order of quotas or voting share in future will be the United States, Japan, China, Brazil, India and Russia, France, Germany, Italy and Britain.
The quota increases and the amendment to the articles of agreement has now to be accepted by member countries. IMF expects the process to be over by the annual meeting of the board of governors in October 2012. In many cases this involves approval by the respective parliaments of the respective countries as well.
"This will result in a shift of more than 6 per cent of quota shares to dynamic emerging market and developing countries and more than 6 per cent from over-represented to under-represented countries, while protecting the quota shares and voting power of the poorest members," the IMF said in a release.