Countries eligible to the FCL are granted large and upfront access to Fund resources, within limits to be assessed on a case-by-case basis and with no ongoing (ex post) conditions; (c) the traditional stand-by lending arrangements have been made more flexible, to enable high access on a precautionary basis for members that do not qualify for the FCL; (d) non-concessional loan access limits for countries have been doubled (to 200 and 600 per cent of quota on an annual and cumulative basis, respectively), in order to bolster countries’ confidence that adequate resources would be available to meet their financing needs.
Second, and perhaps more important, the Fund’s lending capacity has been trebled from the pre-crisis level, from $ billion to $ billion. A number of advanced and emerging countries have volunteered to lend new resources for more than $ billion, through bilateral loans and IMF notes purchase agreements.