A third important challenge, reflecting principle number three for operating as an international lender of last resort, is to bolster the ability to say no to countries and, in cases of insolvency, to facilitate the involvement of governments and the private sector. Several years ago the IMF adopted criteria that countries must meet to receive sizable loans.
These criteria included rigorous analysis indicating that a country's financial difficulties reflected a crisis of liquidity rather than of solvency, a high likelihood of a quick return to borrowing from private markets, and a strong probability that the stabilization program would be successful.