F33 - International Monetary Arrangements and InstitutionsReturn

The following article first discusses the first membership of Czechoslovakia in the International Monetary Fund in the years 1945 - 1954 and describes the circumstances of our exclusion from this institution. Czechoslovakia was one of the founding countries of the Bretton-Woods institutions and our position at the IMF was initially very good. The change of political and economic orientation after February 1948 led to a gradual deterioration of our relations with the IMF, which ultimately resulted into our exclusion from both institutions. Next part of the paper is devoted to the position of the Czech Republic at the IMF since the restoration of its membership in the year 1990. Since then, our position in this institution changed. From the beneficiary of financial and technical assistance we have become creditors of the IMF and participate and provide technical assistance. Our foreign currency exposure to the IMF grows, increasing the risk of payment failure of so invested financial means.

Presented article deals with SDR issued by International Monetary Fund in early seventies. It is a reserve asset whose issuance should reduce a dependence of foreign reserve creation on a stock of gold and on a U. S. balance of payments. After a crash of Bretton-Woods monetary system SDR should become a basic reserve asset whereby it could be possible to control and regulate international liquidity. The target of the article is to analyze its current and past role in international monetary system and to show problems that block it to play a role of a world currency and to become a global currency that international monetary system is based on. Attention is also devoted to characteristic of SDR allocation and usage mechanism and a principle of definition of its value and interest rate.

The submitted article deals with the International Monetary Fund as one of the most important multinational institutions, the priority aim of which was to contribute to the achievement of international monetary stability. Since its inception, the distribution of power and economic power has shifted towards dynamically emerging economies such as Brazil, India, Russia and especially China, and this situation should be reflected within the Fund as well. The main attention in the text is therefore given to the realized reform of members' quotas, from which the voting strength is derived and thus the influence in this institution. Based on the data on the proportion of the G8 and G20 countries on the world GDP, world exports and foreign exchange reserves, the relationship between economic power of these countries and their representation in the governing bodies of the Fund is analysed. At the same time the text is addressed to other already implemented and newly upcoming reform steps towards developing a strategy to prevent financial crises. The implementation of the measures accentuated in the text would undoubtedly contribute to the enhancement of the legitimacy of this institution, and the fulfilment of its contemporary mission. So it could fully justify its place in the international monetary system.

Submitted paper consists of an assessment of potential risks of the Czech Republic's entry to ERM II exchange rate mechanism based on both evaluation of ERM II mechanism itself and review of experiences of other countries that have already been or still are a part of this mechanism. The article is split up to three parts. The first one pays attention to a comparison of ERM II and EMS exchange rate mechanisms and interpretation of exchange rate stabilization criteria fulfillment by EU Commission and by European Central Bank. In the second part experiences of two countries are described. For the purpose of this description Denmark was chosen that has been a part of this exchange rate mechanism since very beginning of its functioning, and Slovakia that was a part of ERM II just for minimum requested period before euro adoption. The third part focuses mainly on risks of the Czech Republic's entry to ERM II.

Submitted paper dealswith International Monetary Fund that plays crucial role in international monetary system and by its activities contributes to achievement of international monetary stability. Except characterization of main principles, targets and mechanism of functioning of this institution an attention is especially paid to ongoing reform of member's quotas and to the problems that are going with it. These problems reflect lack of a political will of developed countries to give up its dominance in this institution. The paper further consists in suggested reform steps that are needed to realize in the interest of an increase of IMF's transparency and as a prerequisite of effective performance of the task going with world economy globalization.

The document deals with financial markets supervision. It is focused on suggested changes on European Union level. The arguments are concentrated on analysis of development related to integration of European financial markets. The options provided by so-called Lamfalussy process are discussed and compared to the recommendations of Larosiér´s report. The article shows the key issue of the supervision which is multinational financial groups.