The Board of Governors
The Board of Governors is the IMF’s highest policy-making body. Each country has a representative (Governor) on this board, usually the member country's central bank governor or finance minister. Sweden’s Governor is the governor of Sveriges Riksbank. The Board does not actually meet in practice, but delegates the right of decision-making on almost all issues to the Executive Board.
The Executive Board
The Executive Board consists of 24 members, which – as most countries belong to ‘constituencies' – represent all of the IMF’s member countries. The Executive Board meets approximately three times a week. The United States, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, China and Saudi Arabia have their own Executive Directors. Sweden, which has 1.13 per cent of the voting rights in the IMF, is part of the Nordic-Baltic constituency, which covers 8 countries and has 3.5 per cent of the votes. In 2006 and 2007 this constituency will be represented by Executive Director Toumas Saarenheimo from Finland. From 2008 this constituency will be represented by Executive Director Jens Henriksson from Sweden.
The International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC)
The International Monetary and Financial Committee consists of the finance ministers from each country/constituency and meets twice a year.
Nordic-Baltic Monetary and Financial Committee (NBMFC)
The Nordic-Baltic Monetary and Financial Committee is composed of deputy governors of the central banks in the Nordic countries and meet twice a year to discuss important IMF issues.
In addition, there is regular coordination within the Nordic-Baltic constituency to agree on joint positions regarding important policy issues to be discussed by the IMF Executive Board. The countries' central banks are responsible for this coordination work, in consultation with the finance ministries and other ministries, where appropriate. The Nordic-Baltic Executive Director is head of the Nordic-Baltic Office at the IMF, which has around ten employees.