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U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew on Wednesday urged Congress to ratify the IMF 2010 quota and governance reform which has been delayed as the United States has not yet given it the green light.
"The president has put forward a balanced plan to confront our economic and fiscal challenges, and our support for the international financial institutions goes hand in hand with that comprehensive strategy," said Lew in his testimony before the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives.
"We are seeking legislation that represents no new financial commitment to the IMF but rather an increase in the U.S. quota and an equivalent decrease in the U.S. participation of the NAB (New Arrangements to Borrow)," he added.
"At the end of 2010, G20 leaders and the IMF membership committed to implement the quota and governance reforms by October 2012. The vast majority of the IMF membership has now acted, and only U.S. approval is necessary for these important reforms to go into effect," said Lew.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) governors have their group photo taken during the IMF and World Bank Group Spring Meetings at the IMF headquarters in Washington D.C., April 20, 2013.(Xinhua/Wang Yiou)
The IMF's Board of Governors approved a quota and governance reform package on Dec. 15, 2010. The package included a doubling of IMF quotas and a shift in quotas to dynamic emerging markets and under-represented countries, and a proposed amendment to reform the executive board that would facilitate a move to a more representative and all-elected executive board.
Legislation of U.S. Congress is needed to increase the U.S. quotas in the IMF by approximately 65 billion U.S. dollars and simultaneously reduce by an equal amount U.S. participation in the IMF's NAB, a pool of fund supplementing the IMF's quotas in case of crisis.
The IMF previously had intended to make the 2010 reform package effective before October 2012, but Congress of the United States, the IMF's largest shareholder, has become the major stumbling block.
In its budget plan for the 2014 fiscal year released earlier this month, the Obama administration finally requested U.S. Congress to approve the package to promote global financial stability and U.S. leadership in the IMF.
On the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde welcomed the progress made toward implementing the reforms and urged remaining member countries to complete the necessary steps rapidly.
In a communique released by the Group of 20 developed and developing countries, the G20 officials also stressed the urgent need for ratification of the 2010 IMF Quota and Governance Reform.
