Bretton Woods system

The Bretton Woods Agreements are the two sets of Articles of Agreement, dated 22 July 1944, that created the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, from 1 to 22 July 1944. The Bank was charged with helping rebuild and develop the territories of its members through investment of capital, guarantees for private foreign investment and loans for productive purposes. The Fund was set up to promote international monetary cooperation, the balanced growth of trade, exchange stability and orderly exchange arrangements, and to avoid competitive exchange depreciation, and it made its resources available to members so they could correct balance of payments problems. Both instruments set rules on membership, quotas and subscriptions, and on how they may be amended. The arrangement of fixed but adjustable exchange rates and permanent international financial institutions that these agreements established is what is commonly called the Bretton Woods system. In the United States the agreements were accepted through the Bretton Woods Agreements Act of 31 July 1945, and the related agreements took effect on 27 December 1945.