Administration Priorities for the International Financial Institutions
Washington,
November 8, 2017 -
The Subcommittee on Monetary Policy and Trade heard testimony from U.S. Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs David Malpass about the Trump Administration’s plans for international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“I thank Under Secretary Malpass for his testimony today and I look forward to continuing to work with him to reform international financial institutions including the World Bank, the IMF, and other regional development banks supported by the United States,” said Subcommittee Chairman Andy Barr (R-KY). “Exerting U.S. leadership in the world, and ensuring international financial institutions preserve their legitimacy, means advocating that they concentrate on clearly defined objectives, and are held accountable for results. Leadership at these institutions doesn’t boil down to who can open their checkbook the fastest. Leadership means demanding economic growth, institutional transparency, and responsible project management that puts beneficiaries first.”
Key Takeaways
- The World Bank should focus on doing a limited number of things well, not an ill-defined and ever-growing number of things ineffectively.
- The IMF and World Bank should get back to basics: extending taxpayer financed loans to middle- and high-income countries has undermined these institutions’ core missions.
Topline Quotes from Witnesses
“MDBs [multilateral development banks] must improve the tools and methods they use to analyze additionality, guard against crowding-out, and maximize development impact. We should set as a goal that every project and intervention an MDB undertakes moves a borrower along a continuum toward the ability to finance their own development without donor support. In seeking this transformation, we need to challenge the multilateral organizations to rethink their methods and operations.” -- The Honorable David Malpass, Under Secretary for International Affairs, U.S. Department of the Treasury
