The new international financial architecture: bail-ins, bail-outs, bail-ups and newspeak

Abstract

The term ‘bailing in the private sector’ is used to describe several quite different proposals with the common feature that they all seek to make private lenders to developing countries share in the costs of financial or currency crises in these countries. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) regards it as one of the main pillars of the ‘new international financial architecture’ — that is, the package of proposals for reforming the international financial system that is intended to reduce the frequency and severity of financial and currency crises in emerging markets. The other pillars of the IMF’s proposed package are transparency, prudential regulation of financial institutions, cautious liberalisation of international capital markets and the implementation of codes of international best practice for making and documenting economic policies.