IMF SEMINAR EVENT

DATE: April 21, 2017

DAY: Friday

11:30 AM - 12:45 PM

LOCATION: IMF-HQ1-Meeting-Halls-AB

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Overview

In 1967, the IMF membership reached agreement on creating the special drawing right (SDR), the official reserve asset allocated and administered by the IMF. While to date the SDR has played a minor role in the international monetary system, the global financial crisis and its aftermath have spurred renewed debate over its role. This role includes not only its original function as an international reserve asset, but also other functions, such as the SDR as a vehicle for financing the provision of conditional liquidity, a denomination for financial instruments, and a unit of account. This seminar will examine how a greater role for the SDR in these areas would impact the functioning of the international monetary system, in today’s increasingly multipolar and financially interconnected global economy.

Join the conversation #IMFSDR

50 Years After The SDR's Role in the International Monetary System

50 Years After The SDR's Role in the International Monetary System

Panelists

Maurice Obstfeld has been the Economic Counsellor and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund since 2015. He is on leave from the University of California, Berkeley, where he is the Class of 1958 Professor of Economics and formerly Chair of the Department of Economics. He is a former member of the U.S. President’s Council of Economic Advisors, and the co-author of two leading textbooks ininternational economics.

Mohamed El-Erian is Chief Economic Adviser at Allianz, the corporate parent of PIMCO, where he served as CEO and co-CIO. He previously served as Chairman of U.S. President Barack Obama’s Global Development Council, CEO of the Harvard Management Company, and Deputy Director at the International Monetary Fund. He is the author of When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change and The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Avoiding the Next Collapse.

Yi Gang has been Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China since 2007. From 2009 to 2016, he served concurrently as Director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE). He has served in a number of other positions at the PBoC, including Secretary-General of the Monetary Policy Committee, Director-General of the Monetary Policy Department, Assistant Governor, and President of the Operations Office. He was previously an assistant professor of economics at Indiana University, and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois.

José Antonio Ocampo is Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. In May, he will take up an appointment as Member of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Colombia. Ocampo previously served as Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs at the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. In Colombia, he served as Minister of Finance and Public Credit, and Chairman of the Board of the central bank

Catherine Schenk is Professor of International Economic History at the University of Glasgow. She has also held academic posts at Royal Holloway, University of London, and Victoria University of Wellington. She holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and is the author of several books including International Economic Relations Since 1945 and The Decline of Sterling: Managing the Retreat of an International Currency.