About the World Bank

JULY 1944
BRETTON WOODS CONFERENCE
In July 1944 – one year before the end of World War II – delegates from 44 countries met for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The conference aimed to create the framework for post-war international economic cooperation and reconstruction. The intellectual leaders at the conference were John Maynard Keynes (Adviser to the Treasury in the United Kingdom), and Harry Dexter White (Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the United States).

While the conference resulted in the formation of two institutions: the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), the creation of the World Bank was not the primary focus. The majority of time and effort was spent on the IMF Commission under Harry Dexter White’s leadership. The work of the World Bank Commission on the other hand, occurred only in the last few days of the conference and its articles of agreement – primarily drafted by John Maynard Keynes – included rebuilding the economies of countries devastated by war and increasing the economic development of developing countries.