IMF aims to boost lending resources by $250 bn

LONDON: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) wants to boost its lending resources to $1 trillion from $750 billion in order to prevent future financial crises, the Financial Times said on Monday.

The paper, without citing sources, said the IMF wants to agree financing deals in advance that will be specially tailored to individual countries, rather than respond to crises with conditional loan packages.

"Even when not in a time of crisis, a big fund, likely to intervene massively, is something that can help prevent crises," IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told the FT.

"Just because the financing role decreases, doesn't mean we don't need to have huge firepower... a $1,000 billion fund is a correct forecast," he said.



The FT said South Korea, which currently chairs the Group of 20 leading economies, is hoping to convince the G20 countries to back the plan at the next summit in Seoul in November.

Strauss-Kahn was in South Korea -- which chairs the Group of 20 leading economies this year -- last week to attend a conference.

South Korea's presidential panel for the Group of 20 leading economies, confirmed it was cooperating with the IMF to work out a better safety net.

"So far the lending facilities of the IMF have been focused on crisis resolution more than crisis prevention," Jie-Ae Sohn, spokesperson of Presidential Committee for the G20 Seoul Summit, told.

"But South Korea, as this year's president of the Group of 20 leading economies is discussing with the IMF packages that would compliment and upgrade crisis prevention mechanisms."

The spokesperson, however, declined to elaborate on how much the IMF will increase its lending resources.