Preface

This paper was prepared by the staff of the International Monetary Fund, for consideration by the IMF's Executive Board in the context of its work on private sector involvement in the resolution of financial crises. The views expressed in the paper are those of the IMF staff and should not be attributed to Executive Directors or to their national authorities. The Board's views on this topic, as expressed at a meeting on September 19, 2001 in which the staff paper was discussed, are highlighted in a public information notice.

This paper was prepared by the staff of the Capital Account Issues Division of the Policy Development and Review Department under the direction of Jack Boorman, Counsellor and Director, Mark Allen, Deputy Director, and Matthew Fisher, Assistant Director. The primary author was Carlos Medeiros. Other contributors included Rupert Thorne, Athanasios Arvanitis, Lamin Leigh, Inutu Lukonga, Laura Papi, Andrea Richter Hume, Krishna Srinivasan, and Alexander E. Wolfson.

The authors are grateful to numerous colleagues in the Fund for detailed comments on earlier drafts of this paper. The authors would also like to thank Angeliki Economopoulos and Patricia Gillett for excellent research assistance and Lucia Buono, Julia Baca, and Maame Baiden for their dedicated assistance throughout the preparation of the paper.