Delegates from 44 Allied nations met at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to design a postwar monetary order. The goal was to reduce the risk of economic instability like the Great Depression and to support trade and reconstruction. This meeting set the stage for creating two new international institutions: the IMF and the IBRD (later the World Bank).
On the conference’s final day, delegates signed the Final Act, which included the Articles of Agreement for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). These documents laid out each institution’s purpose, governance, and basic operating rules. The agreements still required countries to ratify them under their own laws before the institutions could legally begin.
The United States enacted the Bretton Woods Agreements Act, authorizing U.S. participation in the IMF and IBRD and setting up the domestic framework to manage that participation. Because the U.S. was central to the proposed system, this step helped move the agreements from wartime planning into implementation. It also signaled that the new institutions would have major member backing and resources.
After enough governments ratified the agreements, the IMF and IBRD Articles of Agreement entered into force, legally creating both institutions. This milestone turned the Bretton Woods plans into operational organizations under international law. With the charters in force, the next steps were to set up governance, headquarters, and initial operating rules.
The IMF and IBRD Boards of Governors held their inaugural meeting in Savannah, Georgia. Governors adopted key by-laws, elected executive directors, and agreed to locate both institutions’ headquarters in Washington, D.C. These decisions provided the basic governance structure needed to move from treaty text to day-to-day administration.
The IMF’s Executive Directors held their first meeting in Washington, launching the institution’s ongoing decision-making body. This early work focused on organizing staff, adopting initial procedures, and preparing for the system’s core task: supervising exchange-rate commitments. It marked the shift from start-up planning to regular governance.
Eugene Meyer became the first president of the World Bank (IBRD). His early leadership focused on building the organization: recruiting staff, shaping lending policies, and establishing credibility with financial markets. This institution-building was essential before the Bank could borrow funds and make large reconstruction loans.
The IMF and World Bank held their first Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors in Washington, D.C. These meetings helped align members on how the new system would operate and what priorities would come first. They also reflected how quickly Bretton Woods planning was turning into a working international framework.
A critical implementation task was establishing “par values,” meaning each member’s official exchange rate in terms of gold or the U.S. dollar under the Bretton Woods rules. Without these baseline rates, the IMF could not effectively supervise exchange-rate stability or manage adjustments. By late 1946, initial par values had been established for many member currencies, enabling the system to function as designed.
The IMF began operations, moving from institution-building to active use of its financial and policy tools. Under Bretton Woods, members generally pegged their currencies to the U.S. dollar, while the U.S. dollar was convertible to gold for foreign official holders. This start date marks the system’s transition from agreed rules into an operating international monetary regime.
By the end of 1946 and into 1947, the core “immediate implementation” steps were in place: the treaties were effective, governance bodies were meeting, headquarters and leadership were established, and initial exchange-rate par values were being set. With the IMF beginning operations in March 1947, Bretton Woods moved from a wartime conference outcome to an operating postwar monetary framework. This created the institutional foundation that would later define the wider Bretton Woods system in practice.
France became the first country to draw (borrow) funds from the IMF. This early use illustrated the IMF’s practical role in addressing balance-of-payments pressures—when a country lacks enough foreign currency reserves to pay for imports or meet external obligations. It also tested the new rules for conditional access to shared financial resources.
Bretton Woods Conference and immediate implementation (July 1944–1946)