Bretton Woods Institutions

From Freepedia

The Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs) consist of the World Bank (originally International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IBRD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), founded in July 1944 at a meeting of delegates of 44 countries in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire (USA). At the same time they agreed on fixing exchange rates of their currencies with the U.S. dollar in purpose to stabilize international monetary system and financial relations.

The Bretton Woods system was initiated by two economists of the time, the American minister of state in the U.S. treasury, Harry Dexter White, and the British economist John Maynard Keynes.

Trivia

An unwritten rule establishes that the IMF's managing director must be European and that the president of the World Bank must be from the United States.