A Guide To Committees, Groups, and Clubs

International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC)

The IMFC advises and reports to the IMF Board of Governors on the supervision and management of the international monetary and financial system, including on responses to unfolding events that may disrupt the system. It also considers proposals by the Executive Board to amend the Articles of Agreement and advises on any other matters that may be referred to it by the Board of Governors. Although the IMFC has no formal decision-making powers, in practice, it has become a key instrument for providing strategic direction to the work and policies of the Fund.

The IMFC usually meets twice a year, at the Bank-Fund Annual and Spring Meetings. For each meeting, the Managing Director prepares a draft agenda that is discussed by the Executive Board, approved by the IMFC Chair, and formally adopted by the IMFC at the meeting. At the end of the meetings, the Committee issues a statement summarizing its views. These statements provide guidance for the IMF’s work program during the half year leading up to the next Spring or Annual Meetings.

The size and composition of the IMFC mirrors that of the Executive Board. The IMFC has 24 members who are central bank governors, ministers, or others of comparable rank and who are usually drawn from the governors of the IMF's 190 member countries, with the newest member, Andorra joining the IMF in October 2020.

Each member country and each group of member countries that elects an Executive Director appoints a member of the IMFC. The group is currently chaired by Mohammed Aljadaan, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Finance. He was selected to head the Committee for a term of three years effective January 4, 2024.

The IMFC operates by consensus, including on the selection of its chair. While there are no formal rules on term limits, since 2007 IMFC chairs have been appointed for a term of three years. A number of international institutions, including the World Bank, participate as observers in the IMFC’s meetings.

Group of Seven

The Group of Seven (G7) major industrial countries started to hold annual economic summits (meetings at the level of head of state or government) in 1975. At the level of finance minister and central bank governor, the G7 superseded the G5 as the main policy coordination group during 1986–87, particularly following the Louvre Accord of February 1987, which was agreed by the G5 plus Canada and subsequently endorsed by the G7. Since 1987, the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors have met at least semi-annually to monitor developments in the world economy and assess economic policies.

The Managing Director of the IMF usually participates, by invitation, in the surveillance discussions of the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors. The G7 continues to function as a forum for discussion of economic and financial issues among the major industrial countries.

Group of Fifteen

The Group of Fifteen (G15) was established at the Ninth Non-Aligned Summit Meeting in Belgrade, then Yugoslavia, in September 1989. It is composed of countries from Latin America, Africa, and Asia with a common goal of enhanced growth and prosperity. The G15 focuses on cooperation among developing countries in the areas of investment, trade, and technology. The membership of the G15 has since expanded to 17 countries but the name has remained unchanged.

Group of Twenty-Four

The Group of Twenty-Four (G24), originally a chapter of the G77, was established in 1971 to coordinate the positions of emerging markets and developing countries on international monetary and development finance issues and to ensure that their interests were adequately represented at the Bretton Woods Institutions, particularly in the IMFC and Development Committee meetings of the IMF and World Bank. The group—officially called the Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four on International Monetary Affairs and Development—is not an organ of the IMF but the IMF provides secretariat services for the Group. The Ministers of the Group meet twice a year, prior to the IMFC and Development Committee meetings. China has been a “Special Invitee” since 1981. Adama Coulibaly, Minister of Finance, Côte d’Ivoire is the chair of the G24 in 2023

Financial Stability Board

To strengthen the surveillance of financial markets, the G20 leaders decided in April 2009 to expand the membership of the former Financial Stability Forum (FSF) and renamed it the Financial Stability Board (FSB). The new membership includes the G20, Hong Kong SAR, The Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, and Switzerland.

The FSB is designed to help improve the functioning of financial markets, and to reduce systemic risk through enhanced information exchange and international cooperation among the authorities responsible for maintaining financial stability.

The FSF first met on April 14, 1999, at IMF headquarters, and has since then met semiannually. It was made an observer of the IMFC in September 1999.

The current chair of FSB is Klaas Knot, President, De Nederlandsche Bank. The FSB consists of a Plenary, a Steering Committee, other committees and subgroups as needed, and a secretariat based in Basel, Switzerland.

The Plenary is the decision-making organ of the FSB. Its members are the heads of members’ treasuries, central banks, and supervisory agencies; the chairs of the main standard-setting bodies and central bank committees; and senior representatives of international financial institutions (the Bank for International Settlements, International Monetary Fund, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and World Bank). The Steering Committee provides operational guidance between plenary meetings to carry forward the directions of the FSB. Its composition is decided by the Plenary at the proposal of the Chair. The Plenary may establish Standing Committees and working groups as necessary.

Past Groups

With the passage of time, a number of committees, groups, and clubs have changed or have been superseded. Some background information on a few of these groups is listed here:

Group of Five

The Group of Five (G5) consisting of major industrial countries was established in the mid-1970s to coordinate the economic policies of France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The G5 was the main policy coordination group among the major industrial countries through the Plaza Agreement of September 1985. It was subsequently superseded by the G7.

Group of Twenty-Two

The establishment on a temporary basis of the Group of Twenty-Two (also referred to as the “Willard Group”) was announced by United States President Bill Clinton and the other leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries at their meeting in Vancouver in November 1997, when they agreed to organize a gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors to advance the reform of the architecture of the global financial system. The G22 comprised finance ministers and central bank governors from the G7 industrial countries and 15 other economies (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, and Thailand). 

It first met on April 16, 1998, in Washington, D.C., to examine issues related to the stability of the international financial system and effective functioning of global capital markets. It was superseded first by the G33 and then by the G20.

Group of Thirty-Three

The Group of Thirty-Three (G33) superseded the G22 in early 1999, and was itself superseded by the G20 later in the year. Several seminars of the G33 on the international financial architecture were convened at the initiative of the finance ministers and central bank governors of the G7. The first meeting was hosted by Germany in Bonn on March 11, 1999.

The G33 consisted of the finance ministers and central bank governors of Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Türkiye, Republic of, the United Kingdom, and the United States.