OECD - Crisis Management in the International Monetary and Financial System

Crisis Management in the International Monetary and Financial System

OECD Working Party 3 (1961-1979)

by Kazuhiko YAGO


"The postwar international financial system went along with several “forums” of decision making, official as well as unofficial. Starting with the Bretton Woods Institutions, namely the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, the World Bank), bi-lateral negotiations between the United States and the European countries took part in the “forum” for reconstruction; the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the European Payments Union (EPU) began to play important roles in the 1950s; several “Groups”, from the G10, C20 to the G5, G7, faced the reform of the Bretton Woods System. Of the above “forums”, one of the most enigmatic bodies was the Working Party 3 (WP3) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Set up in 1961 as a mere technical working group for the Economic Policy Committee (EPC) of the OECD, the WP3 soon became an important meeting place to discuss the overall strategies of the world economy. Chaired by Emile van Lennep (later Secretary General of the OECD), the WP3 brought together not only the brightest agents of the OECD member countries, but also representatives of the BIS and the IMF..."

Source: http://www.waseda.jp/w-com/quotient/publications/pdf/wcom439_09.pdf