ABSTRACT
Members of the IMF and the World Bank, which was founded at the same time under the Bretton Woods Agreement, are sovereign states. There does not exist any contractual relationship whatsoever between the IMF and commercial banks. Certainly, anyone who today observes an ordinary annual assembly of the IMF and the World Bank will note that thousands of representatives of banks from all over the world take part. According to the importance of their banks an official participation card as "special guest" or "visitor" is issued to them. Thus, there appears to be a positive interest on both sides to meet on the occasion of this large gathering. As private partners, the commercial banks have no means of influencing the economic policy of debtor countries, let alone the basic conditions of world trade. The commercial banks can hardly afford to be discriminated against any longer, in so far as future debt servicing is concerned.
