Compare the IMF and the World Bank - Essay Example

Consequently, the paper will look at the institutions’ purposes, structure and size, funding sources and recipients of the funding. Most individuals find it difficult to distinguish between the IMF and the World Bank. Even one of its founding father (John Maynard Keynes) admittedly implied that he could not differentiate the two institutions during their inaugural meeting. The Bretton institution is a synonym for both IMF and the World Bank. This name originates from a New Hampshire village, USA where the institutions were founded in July 1994 by delegates from 44 countries.

These two institutions are intergovernmental bases supporting the world’s financial and economic order structure. The United Nations setup the institutions with a division of labor notion. Both agencies are directed and owned by their member states governments. For example, the most populous nation (china) and the world’s largest industrial power (USA) are member states. Generally, nearly all nations on earth are members of both agencies. Also, both agencies task themselves with financial and economic issue of their member countries.

Therefore, they dedicate most of their efforts to strengthen and broaden their member states’ economies. Additionally, both agencies’ members attend international conferences and use the same tone to speak (they both have economics as their main theme). Lastly, the institutions hold common annual meetings. These meetings are extensively covered by the media. The World Bank at its formation was assigned goals. Thus, it has a primary purpose of economic development financing. Its first loans were directed at the war torn economies of Europe during the 1940s.

The bank refocused its goal to assisting the poorer nations after countries in Western Europe recovered and became economically self-sufficient. The bank has since advanced more than $330 billion dollars as loans to its members since its inception. Consequently, the World Bank