IMF was conceived at the Bretton Woods Conference held in 1944 and set-up in 1946. The main objective of setting up of such an organisation was to administer a code of good conduct in international liquidity of its member countries and to grant short-term loans to economies, experiencing temporary deficit in Balance of Payments (BOP). IMF started to function from March 1947. Its headquarters is located in Washington DC. There are 189 member countries including India. The highest authority of the IMF is the Board of Governors, which consists of the most part of Ministers of Finance or Central Bank Governors of the member countries. Each member country appoints one Governor. The board generally meets only once in a year.The main objectives of IMF are as follows:

1. To promote international monetary cooperation.
2. To promote exchange stability.
3. To assist in the establishment of a multilateral system of payments in respect of current transactions between members and in the elimination of foreign exchange restrictions.
4. To give confidence to members by making the general resources of the fund temporarily available to them under adequate safeguards.