Who Makes Decisions at the IMF? The IMF is accountable to its member countries, and this accountability is essential to its effectiveness

The IMF is accountable to its member countries, and this accountability is essential to its effectiveness. The day-to-day work of the IMF is carried out by an Executive Board, representing the IMF's 184 members, and an internationally recruited staff under the leadership of the Managing Director and three Deputy Managing Directors—each member of this management team being drawn from a different region of the world. The powers of the Executive Board to conduct the business of the IMF are delegated to it by the Board of Governors.

The Board of Governors, on which all member countries are represented, is the highest authority governing the IMF. It usually meets once a year, at the Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. Each member country appoints a Governor—usually the country's Minister of Finance or the Governor of its Central bank. The Board of Governors decides on major policy issues but has delegated day-to-day decision-making to the Executive Board.

Key policy issues relating to the international monetary system are considered twice-yearly in a committee of Governors called the International Monetary and Financial Committee, or IMFC. A joint committee of the Boards of Governors of the IMF and World Bank called the Development Committee advises and reports to the Governors on development policy and other matters of concern to developing countries.

The Executive Board consists of 24 Executive Directors, with the Managing Director as the chairman (appointed for a renewable five-year term). The Executive Board usually meets three times a week, in full-day sessions, and more often if needed, at the organization's headquarters in Washington, D.C. The IMF's five largest shareholders—the United States, Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom—along with China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, have their own seats on the Board. The other 16 Executive Directors are elected for two-year terms by groups of countries, known as constituencies.

Unlike some international organizations that operate under a one-country-one-vote principle (such as the United Nations General Assembly), the IMF has a weighted voting system: the larger a country's quota in the IMF—determined broadly by its economic size—the more votes it has. But the Board rarely makes decisions based on formal voting, most decisions are based on consensus among its members and are supported unanimously.