International Monetary Fund (IMF)

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization of 185 member countries. It was established at the Bretton Woods eco­nomic conference in 1944 to promote international monetary cooperation, exchange stability, and orderly exchange arrangements, to foster economic growth and high levels of employment and to provide temporary financial assistance to countries to help ease balance of payments adjustment.

Since the early 1970s, when fixed-exchange rates were ended, the IMF, working with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (part of the World Bank Group), has primarily been engaged in assisting developing countries manage their debts with foreign creditors through loans financed by its member countries. In order to gain access to IMF loans, countries are required to meet stringent internal restraints, often to bring rampant inflation under control.

On July 26, 2002, the Executive Board of the IMF dis­cussed proposals that would significantly advance the IMF's contribution to international efforts to combat money laundering and the financing. In October 2002, the IMF and the World Bank launched a 12-month pilot program to assess coun­tries' anti-money laundering and terrorist financing measures. The program was adopted as a perma­nent part of the Fund's work in April 2004. The IMF, in conjunction with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the World Bank, developed a common methodology to con­duct these assessments based on the FATF's 40 Recommendations.