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Among the more striking aspects of the IMF is how little its financial structure has changed since its inception in 1944. For while over the past sixty years the world economy has changed beyond recognition, the IMF has retained its basic structure as an international financial cooperative. Within that structure, IMF member countries’ borrowing rights and voting power are determined by their quota contributions. At the same time, the predominant way in which the IMF’s expanded lending operations continue to be funded is through periodic increases in its members’ quota contributions.

Desmond Lachman is a resident fellow at AEI.