"Directors agreed that staff’s proposed approach addresses more robustly the rigidities in the exceptional access framework, while ensuring that debt vulnerabilities are addressed in an appropriately calibrated way," the press release stated.
On January 20, the IMF Executive Board approved reforms to the exceptional access lending framework, scrapping a loophole that allowed for large IMF loans when a state’s default would have a spillover effect.
The exceptional access lending framework, meant to safeguard IMF resources, was put into place following the 2001 financial crisis in Argentina. It set out criteria that countries had to meet in order to obtain large loans relative to a member country’s IMF quota.
A member's quota determines the maximum amount of financial resources the country is obliged to provide, its voting power and access to financing.
