International Financial Architecture (IFA)

The International Financial Architecture Working Group (IFA) was established following the 2008/2009 global financial crisis. Over the years, it has discussed policies to promote a more stable, resilient and balanced international financial architecture. The group played a key role in approving the 2010 International Monetary Fund (IMF) quota and governance reform, during the Korean presidency. It also played an important role in addressing the euro area crisis in 2011, during the French presidency.

While in its first years the WG focused on issues referring to crises in developed countries — bringing gains to the representation and voice of emerging countries in global financial governance —, over the last three years it has been focused on facing the challenges triggered by the succession of negative shocks (the pandemic, monetary constraints in central economies) that have hit low and middle-income countries. During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020/21, for example, the IFA WG coordinated discussions that considerably eased low-income countries’ debt service burdens.

Recently the WG has been discussing important issues such as optimizing the balance sheets of multilateral development banks and their role as a system — improving analysis and monitoring of capital flows; managing risks arising from their volatility; and strengthening the Global Financial Safety Net.