20 Facts About International Monetary Fund (IMF) | Banking Awareness

Banking awareness is an inevitable part of any public sector bank examination. After all, if you aspire to become an officer at a public sector bank, you can’t skip it. Banking awareness includes industry-specific information that every banker should know. Students tend to ignore banking awareness in favor of focusing on other sections like English and Logical Reasoning, but it is no less important. Banking awareness is an area where you can score more marks easily; all you have to do is regularly read and revise the information. Hence, we bring you today’s dose of banking awareness information by sharing 20 facts about the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

1. International Monetary Fund (IMF) is also known as, ‘The Fund’.
2. IMF has several functions including global financial relation regulation, employment opportunities creation, international trade facilitation, and more.
3. IMF was founded at the United Nations (UN) Conference at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, the United States on 22nd July 1944.
4. IMF’s operations formally began in 1945 with 29 countries as members.
5. IMF is headquartered at Washington D.C., U.S.A.
6. For IMF, 1 financial year is from 1st May – 30th April.
7. IMF currently has as many as 189 member countries as per this document.
8. France was the first nation who received financial assistance from the IMF.
9. IMF’s highest-ranking designation is ‘Managing Director’; the Managing Director of the IMF also is the Chairman of its Executive Board.
10. Like several government officials, the Managing Director of the IMF is hired or elected every 5 years.
11. IMF’s Executive Board is constituted of 24 directors.
12. IMF’s day-to-day operations are managed by the Executive Board in association and support from the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC).
13. IMF created the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) in 1969 to meet member nations’ emergency financial requirements.
14. Every member wishing to participate in the SDR or benefit by it must put their resources proportional to which they can withdraw funds as per their requirement.
15. New countries seeking or wishing to become members of the IMF need to make a payment similar to a membership fee which is computed specifically for every country based on its existing or current levels of financial strength and economic development.
16. As an organization, IMF runs solely on the resources contributed by its member nations.
17. Not surprisingly, the United States of America is the largest member in terms of contribution in the organization.
18. At IMF, the voting rights regarding decisions to spend or allocate resources as well as invite or terminate members is proportional to the amount of money contributed by a member country.
19. India is one of the founding members of the IMF.
20. The most recent member of the IMF is a small, island country known as Nauru. Nauru joined the IMF in 2016.

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