Since 2006, many experts questioned the purpose or continued existence of the IMF.
In the 1950's and 1960's it provided bridge loans to countries suffering temporary balance of payments difficulties to allow them to maintain their currency peg to the dollar.
In the 1980s and 1990s, it had assisted developing economies suffering foreign exchange crises by providing finance conditioned upon austerity measures designed to protect foreign bankers and bondholders.
Yet with the elimination of gold, the rise of floating exchange rates, and the piling up of huge surpluses by developing countries, the IMF now enters the 21st century with no discernable mission.