BRICS Countries: Participation in the Governance Reform of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group. What are the Results?

Abstract

The article analyzes the BRICS countries’ participation in the management reform of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group as an institutional framework of the Jamaica Monetary System (Jamaica Plan 1976). As the novelty of the study, the author considers this problem in the context of the transition from interstate regulation to global financial and economic regulation. The definition proposed by the author (broader than the term “global financial regulation”) is due to a new assessment of the financial risks. The article substantiates the participation of the BRICS countries (as well as all members of the IMF and the World Bank) in the reform and the interest in the relative stabilization of the world economy and Finance. The author grounded the assessment of the group of 20 (G20) as the initiator of this reform in the context of the global crisis and the gradual weakening of the control of the implementation of the recommendations of the summits. Based on the position of the G20 on an integrated analysis of the role of the Bretton Woods institutions in the Jamaica Plan 1976, the author gave a comparative description of the relationship of their functions and role in the functioning of the two global currency systems over 70 years. The author made conclusions about the effectiveness of the BRICS countries’ participation in the IMF and the World Bank Group governance reform regarding the increase of their share in quotas and votes, and their representation in the form of appointment of their own Executive Director to the IMF Executive Board. It has been revealed the negative impact of the transformation of the role of these institutions in the global financial and economic regulators in connection with the introduction of integrated currency supervision over the preparation and use of the sovereign currency reserves of the countries. Summing up, the author formulated proposals for further strengthening the positions of the BRICS countries in the management of the IMF and the World Bank on the basis of improving the new formula for calculating quotas introduced in 2008.