January 20,2016/IMF

(Mr. Gerry Rice, Director of Communications at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement today in Washington)

“Today the Executive Board of the IMF approved an important reform to the Fund’s exceptional access lending framework, including the removal of the systemic exemption that was introduced in 2010. The objective of this reform is to better calibrate IMF lending decisions to members’ debt vulnerabilities, while avoiding unnecessary costs for the members, their creditors, and the overall system. In developing the reform proposals, IMF staff conducted extensive consultations with key stakeholders, including market participants.

 “The reforms are a central component of the IMF’s work on preventing and more efficiently resolving sovereign debt crises. The IMF launched a four-pronged work program on sovereign debt restructuring in 2013. Two of the four components of this work stream have already been completed: on strengthening the contractual framework to address collective action problems (October 2014) and on reforming the IMF’s policy on the non-toleration of arrears to official creditors (December 2015). The IMF will consider later this year the fourth and final component of this work stream, which will cover issues related to debtor-creditor engagement during debt restructuring, including a review of the IMF’s policy on lending into arrears for private creditors.

“Full details of the latest reforms to the IMF’s exceptional access lending framework, including the Executive Board’s assessment, will be published in the coming days.”