On 11 May, the Rafael del Pino Foundation hosted the presentation of the book "The Metamorphosis of the IMF. 2009-2011", published by Thomson Reuters.
Speakers at the event included Ángel Luis López-RoaExecutive Director of the Banco de España; Agustín CarstensGovernor of the Banco de México; Rodrigo de RatoChairman of Bankia; and Pablo Morenoauthor of the work.
Pablo Moreno believes that: "The Fund has been an institution that has been perfectly able to adapt to the new reality: it has recognised its mistakes - supervision before the crisis was not sufficiently incisive. Problems had been detected but were not announced clearly enough and I think it has learned from this crisis and has come out stronger [...]. Perhaps, in the strictly current situation that has to do with the situation in Europe, it is being a very important partner of the European Union, there are the programmes that are now being financed within the EU, it is a co-funding between the IMF and the new European funds that have been created. There is a close collaboration to monitor the different programmes as well as the surveillance that is now being strengthened in the euro area.
The author of the book describes the future of the institution: "[The IMF] has managed to underpin a series of reforms thanks to the crisis; in this sense, confirming the recurrent argument of crisis as opportunity, it has managed to underpin a series of reforms on all fronts. It now has a much stronger lending policy and greater financial muscle. It will therefore be able to be the institution it was born to be: an institution to assist countries in crisis situations. On the other fronts, governance has also been strengthened; it is a more balanced institution and therefore this provides a guarantee, for the future, that decisions will take better account of the opinions and interests of advanced and emerging economies. An important task is to improve its surveillance policy and to give earlier warning of risks in the international economic system.
