By David Lawder and Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON, April 9 (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund needs to complete the 16th quota review approved in 2023 to ensure that it has “scary” financial firepower to fight any crisis, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday.
Georgieva said she was optimistic the IMF will win approval from the U.S. Congress this year for the review, which increases quota lending resources by 50%, making its $1 trillion in lending capacity more immediately available through internal resources rather than from external borrowing arrangements.
She said the IMF has a “big cushion” of resources but needs the quota increase finalized to provide financial reassurance, “because we don’t know what the future may bring.”
“It is not like we run out of money, but we want to be so strong that the crisis comes, looks at us, puts its tail between its legs and goes away. Scary,” Georgieva said.
The quota deal was approved in December 2023 to consolidate resources but maintain the IMF’s previous shareholding structure, keeping the U.S. veto power over major decisions with about 16% voting power.
But implementation required all member governments to formally approve it, something the U.S. Congress has failed to do despite support from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his predecessor, Janet Yellen.
A U.S. fiscal 2026 appropriations bill covering U.S. Treasury programs that passed in early March failed to include the quota increase, which some Republicans view as favoring China by agreeing to revamp quotas in the future to boost the influence of big emerging market economies.
The quota approval request last week reappeared deep within an appendix of President Donald Trump’s budget request for fiscal 2027 starting on October 1, which is dominated by a proposed massive defense spending increase.
The change would not involve a budgetary outlay from Congress, as it would largely transfer U.S. funds from a separate crisis lending facility known as the New Arrangements to Borrow to the IMF quota resources.
The last IMF quota update, which boosted the shareholdings of China, Brazil and India at the expense of mainly European countries, was agreed in 2010, but was not approved until a December 2015 budget deal in Congress.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and David Lawder; Editing by Franklin Paul and Paul Simao)
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