Bills

Bills Digests

Content provider
Information
Date:
24 April 2012
Downloads

Note: The above document(s) are provided as an Adobe PDF (PortableDocument Format) file. you can download a free viewer for PDF files from Adobe's web site.

Related documents
Contact details
Parliamentary Library
Parliament Buildings
Wellington

Digest No. 1970

International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill 2011

Date of Introduction: 04 October 2011
Portfolio: Finance
Select Committee: As at 24 April, 1st Reading not held.
Published: 24 April 2012by John McSoriley BA LL.B, BarristerLegislative AnalystP: (04) 817-9626 (Ext. 9626) Caution: This Digest was prepared to assist consideration of the Bill by members of Parliament. It has no official status.Although every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, it should not be taken as a complete or authoritative guide to the Bill. Other sources should be consulted to determine the subsequent official status of the Bill.

Purpose

"This Bill, which amends the International Finance Agreements Act 1961 (the Act), provides for New Zealand to recognise changes to the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund (the Articles), which are the governing documents of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)" [1]   .

Background

The IMF is an international organisation that oversees the global financial system by monitoring the macroeconomic policies of member countries and by lending to countries facing adverse economic conditions [2]   .

The changes to the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund (the Articles) provide for:

  • improving the representation of fast-growing emerging market countries at the IMF; and

  • doubling the quota which are the IMF’s main means of raising funds.

The Bill also creates provides for a regulation-making power so that future updates to the Articles can be made by regulation.

Main Provisions

Texts to be amended by regulations

The Bill provides that the text of the international agreements set out in schedules to Act and the International Finance Agreements Amendment Act 1966 to be updated by Order in Council (notified in the Gazette) which will be subject to the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989 (i.e. they will be published in the Statutory Regulations series) and the Regulations (Disallowance) Act 1989 (i.e. they may be disallowed by Parliament) and notified in the Gazette (Clause 4 inserts New Section 10 into the Act).

Amended Articles set out

The Bill sets out the Articles of the IMF as amended (Clauses 5 and 6 and Schedule 1).

Comment

“The Articles were agreed to in 2008 and approved by the necessary majority of IMF members in February 2011. They relate to representation and participation in, and expanding the investment authority of, the IMF. The amendments made by clause 6 (set out in Schedule 2), which relate to reforming the Executive Board of the IMF, were agreed to in 2010. Clause 6 will be brought into force by Order in Council when the amendments have been approved by the necessary majority of IMF members” [3]   .

.

Commencement

The Bill provides that it will come into force on the day after the date on which the Act receives the Royal assent, except for Clause 6, which comes into force on a date appointed by the Governor-General by Order in Council.

Comment

“The amendments made by clause 6 and set out in Schedule 2 will be brought into force when they have been approved by the necessary majority of IMF members” [4]   .

Copyright: © NZ Parliamentary Library, 2012
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand licence. In essence, you are free to copy, distribute and adapt the work, as long as you attribute the work to the Parliamentary Library and abide by the other licence terms. To view a copy of this licence, visit : http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/nz/.

  1. International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill, 2011 No 336-1, Explanatory note, General policy statement, p. 1.   [back]
  2. Ibid.   [back]
  3. Ibid., p. 2.   [back]
  4. Ibid., p. 2.   [back]