In the last few years the emerging countries have built up foreign exchange reserves that now outweigh the funds of the IMF tenfold. There have been proposals, notably by the Asian countries, to use a part of these reserves to institute new “regional monetary funds” to provide loans in a similar way to the IMF.
If this reduction in the amount of credit granted were to prove permanent, there would be no alternative to drastically scaling back the Fund’s financial function. “Surveillance” itself would have to be reformed, since the IMF’s influence over member countries derives in part from its role as potential supplier of finance.