Communiqué of the International Monetary and Financial Committee of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund

2. Yesterday, October 10, the G-7 met and agreed the following plan of action:

• “Take decisive action and use all available tools to support systemically important financial institutions and prevent their failure.

• Take all necessary steps to unfreeze credit and money markets and ensure that banks and other financial institutions have broad access to liquidity and funding.

• Ensure that our banks and other major financial intermediaries, as needed, can raise capital from public as well as private sources, in sufficient amounts to re-establish confidence and permit them to continue lending to households and businesses.

• Ensure that our respective national deposit insurance and guarantee programs are robust and consistent so that our retail depositors will continue to have confidence in the safety of their deposits.

• Take action, where appropriate, to restart the secondary markets for mortgages and other securitized assets. Accurate valuation and transparent disclosure of assets and consistent implementation of high quality accounting standards are necessary.

The actions should be taken in ways that protect taxpayers and avoid potentially damaging effects on other countries. We will use macroeconomic policy tools as necessary and appropriate. We strongly support the IMF’s critical role in assisting countries affected by this turmoil. We will accelerate full implementation of the Financial Stability Forum recommendations and we are committed to the pressing need for reform of the financial system. We will strengthen further our cooperation and work with others to accomplish this plan.”

3. Today the International Monetary and Financial Committee strongly endorsed the above commitments.

4. The Committee recognizes that the depth and systemic nature of the crisis call for exceptional vigilance, coordination, and readiness to take bold action. It underscores that the Fund has a critical mandate to foster the multilateral cooperation needed to restore and safeguard international monetary and financial stability. The Committee considers that, using its emergency procedures, the Fund stands ready to quickly make available substantial resources to help member countries cover financing needs. The Committee calls for further intensive Fund engagement across the membership to discuss and develop robust policy responses to the crisis.

5. Moreover, the Committee notes that many emerging market economies, which have implemented sound policies in recent years, may experience spillover effects from the financial crisis. The difficult global financial environment, including elevated food and fuel prices, adds to the challenges for emerging market and developing countries to preserve macroeconomic stability, sustain growth, and make progress on poverty reduction. For these reasons, it is critically important that collaborative action be coordinated between advanced and emerging economies.

6. The Committee calls on the Fund—given its universal membership, core macro-financial expertise, and its mandate to promote international financial stability—to take the lead, in line with its mandate, in drawing the necessary policy lessons from the current crisis and recommending effective actions to restore confidence and stability. It asks the Fund to focus discussion, and enhance cooperation, with a wide range of perspectives with the FSF, the G-20, and others on this issue in an inclusive setting. The Committee asks the IMF to start this initiative immediately and to report to the IMFC at the latest at its next meeting.

7. The next regular meeting of the IMFC will be held in Washington, D.C. on April 25, 2009. The attachment summarizes the Committee’s discussion on other key points.