IMF Executive Board Discusses the Adequacy of the Funds Precautionary Balances

 The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the 2026 Review of the Adequacy of the Fund’s Precautionary Balances.[1] This review took place on the standard two-year cycle, following the 2024 Review. An interim assessment of precautionary balances was conducted within the Review of the Fund’s Income Position for FY2025 and FY2026, concluded in April 2025.

The Fund’s precautionary balances—which consist of general and special reserves—are a key element of the IMF’s multilayered framework for managing financial risks. Precautionary balances provide a buffer to protect the Fund against potential losses resulting from credit, income, and other financial risks. As such, they help protect the value of reserve assets represented by member countries’ positions in the Fund and underpin the exchange of assets through which the Fund provides financial assistance to countries with balance of payments needs.

The review was based on the assessment framework established in 2010 and reaffirmed in 2024, which uses an indicative range for precautionary balances, linked to a forward-looking measure of total IMF non-concessional credit, to guide decisions on adjusting the medium-term target over time. It takes into account the macroeconomic environment, the characteristics of Fund lending, and other financial risks faced by the Fund. The framework also allows for judgement in setting the target based on a broad range of factors that affect the adequacy of precautionary balances.

 

Executive Board Assessment[2]

Executive Directors welcomed the review of the adequacy of the Fund’s precautionary balances, following the last review in March 2024 and the interim update in April 2025 within the Review of the Fund’s Income Position for FY2025 and FY2026 (2025 Update). They emphasized that maintaining an adequate level of precautionary balances remains a key element of the Fund’s multilayered risk management framework to mitigate financial risks, safeguard the strength of the Fund’s balance sheet, and protect the value of members’ reserve positions in the Fund. Given the current heightened global uncertainty, Directors underscored the importance of continued vigilance and close monitoring of risks, as well as updating the Board as needed.

Directors welcomed the continued increase in precautionary balances since reaching the SDR 25 billion medium-term target at the end of FY2024. They generally agreed that the overall balance of risks and risk mitigants to the Fund remain broadly unchanged, stressing that the composition of risks has evolved, with credit risks having edged up, reflecting higher exposure to and greater concentration toward the largest borrowers. Among mitigating factors, Directors observed that precautionary balances have continued to grow broadly as expected in the 2025 Update, with rising coverage of credit outstanding, total commitments, and upcoming obligations.

Directors noted that precautionary balances are expected to remain above the target, including assuming additional distributions to the Interim Placement Administered Account (IPAA) in coming years. They observed that medium-term net operational income remains strong, but subject to concentration risk, while the medium-term outlook for investment returns remains reasonably positive, notwithstanding elevated investment risks.

Directors broadly agreed that the current target of precautionary balances, together with other elements of the Fund’s financial risk management framework and the IFRS 9 provisioning framework, continue to provide a robust level of financial protection for the Fund’s balance sheet and creditor claims. Most Directors supported retaining the current medium-term target for precautionary balances at SDR 25 billion, while a few Directors favored raising the target. Directors generally agreed to retain the current floor for precautionary balances at SDR 20 billion, noting that it provides an important safeguard against shocks and helps ensure the Fund retains sufficient buffers.

Directors noted that the current medium-term target remains within the indicative range and above its midpoint in the most plausible lending demand scenarios, and that precautionary balances are projected to remain above the current target over the medium term under all scenarios. Directors cautioned that the Fund’s income and precautionary balances projections are subject to heightened uncertainty including from financial market volatility and intensifying downside risks to global growth stemming in particular from geopolitical developments in the Middle East. They emphasized that this environment calls for continued vigilance and close monitoring of income developments and the adequacy of precautionary balances to ensure that the Fund remains financially strong. Looking ahead, while agreeing that the current rules-based adequacy framework remains broadly appropriate, a few Directors saw merit in considering further refinements to better capture evolving risks and enhance its robustness. More generally, a few Directors considered that the timely implementation of the 16th General Review of Quotas could further strengthen the Fund’s resource base. Recognizing the uncertain environment, in the event that precautionary balances rise well above the target, a few Directors saw merit in considering an early review of charges and the surcharge policy in due course.

Directors supported maintaining the biennial review cycle, with an interim update, as well as earlier reviews should developments materially affect the adequacy assessment—such as significant deviations of Fund lending from staff projections or material increases in credit or other financial risks.

https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2026/04/09/pr-26114-imf-executive-board-discusses-the-adequacy-of-the-funds-precautionary-balances

'EU could classify OpenAI as very large search engine'

 The European Commission is preparing to designate OpenAI as a very large search engine under the Digital Services Act (DSA), Handelsblatt reported on Friday, citing Commission sources. The announcement could be made in the coming days.

The Commission defines very large search engines as those with over 45 million users in the European Union and applies stricter regulations to them. A company classified under the DSA has four months to comply with its obligations or face investigations and fines. Currently, Google and Microsoft are the only companies designated as very large search engines.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/EU-could-classify-OpenAI-as-very-large-search-engine/66046956

'Axios: Vance, Bessent held AI security talks before Mythos release'

 US Vice President JD Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pressed top tech executives last week on artificial intelligence security and potential cyberattack scenarios ahead of a major model release of Anthropic, CNBC reported on Friday.

The call included Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei, Google's Sundar Pichai, Open AI's Sam Altman and Microsoft's Satya Nadella, focusing on safeguards and risks if AI systems empower attackers. The discussion came a week before Anthropic introduced its Mythos model to a limited group of firms, citing concerns about misuse.

Separately, it was reported that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Bessent also met major US bank CEOs this week to assess financial and sector exposure to emerging AI-driven cyber threats.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Vance-Bessent-held-AI-security-talks-before-Mythos-release/66048715

Iranian team arrives in Islamabad for US talks

 Iran's delegation, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, arrived in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Friday, according to Iran's Fars news agency. The media outlet shared that the team consists of security, political, military, economic, and legal officials.

The delegation is set to have discussions with the United States' team, headed by Vice President JD Vance. The Iranian side previously set certain preconditions that need to be accepted before the talks begin.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, alongside other top Iranian officials, is accompanying Ghalibaf on the visit.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Iranian-team-arrives-in-Islamabad-for-US-talks/66048394

"We're Really In Uncharted Territory..."

 by James Howard Kunstler,

Games Nations Play

“I am sick of serving in Congress with immoral freaks who abuse their office and bring dishonor to the institution.”

- Rep Anna Paulina Luna

You have entered the season of chaos. Better get used to it. The center quit holding a long time ago, and now even the margins are quivering. Buckle up and batten down. It will probably get rougher and weirder. Struggle is everywhere.

Iran Declares Victory

Will Iran reopen Hormuz or not? They really only have days to stop playing games with the rest of the world. It will soon be clear whether they can negotiate in good faith. It doesn’t look good. Their theology of jihad contains a permission structure for lying to their enemies to accomplish their aim: which is, to annihilate the hated infidels (that’s us).

That is the reason for this conflict, by the way. They have promised over and over again to destroy us. Why not believe them? The thousand pounds of enriched uranium is still stashed somewhere in the country. It has only one purpose, to be made into bombs, and they’re not allowed to keep it. The message is pretty simple, but they don’t seem to get it. There are probably big fissures between the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), the secular government of President Masoud Pezeshkian, and the regular army (the Artesh). Are they even able to communicate with each other? You and I don’t know, though Mr. Trump and his people might know.

I doubt that Mr. Trump wanted to drop the hammer on Iran last Tuesday, as he vowed to do. But it might eventually be necessary to turn the lights off there if they don’t stop screwing around.

Does Iran have an inexhaustible supply of missiles and drones, as some observers seem to believe? I doubt it. We blew up their factories. We have the option and the ability to track down whatever they’ve got left in storage and destroy it. One way or another, we are going to end Iran’s ability to be a problem for the rest of the world.

The American Left (the Democratic Party) would like nothing better than for Iran to thumb its nose at the rest of the world (at us especially), because the American Left has launched its own sort of Jihad.

It has been waging war on the rest of us in America for ten years, and you can be sure that, as springtime blossoms over the land, they intend to ramp up the action.

Expect Act One on May Day.

That is the day that the Left customarily celebrates socialism. It started off decades ago as a holiday for industrial workers. There are few enough of those left in the USA these days that they constitute less than a critical mass of all American workers. They have been replaced by grifters, fraudsters, and other parasites looking to get money-for-nothing from the rest of us without working at all. That is the Democratic Party’s raison d’être. They are now strictly a racketeering operation.

The Left will stage widespread demonstrations around the country on May Day. The several No Kings demos in cold weather were rehearsals for the spring and summer fun. You can expect the May Day action to turn into riots. Antifa is still very much at the Party’s beck and call for sparking that sort of thing. The idea behind it is to provoke the president into reacting forcefully to the Left’s riots so they can brand him “a tyrant.” If May Day is insufficient to accomplish that, wait until the extravaganzas around the Fourth of July when the USA ostensibly gets to celebrate our 250th birthday as a republic.

Considering that the Republican majority in Congress was unwilling to pass an election reform bill, it is also a fairly sure thing that sometime between May Day and July Fourth the president will have to issue an executive order setting out requirements for a free and fair election: voter ID, citizens only, highly restricted and tightly regulated mail-in voting, no electronic ballot-counting machines, etc.

That alone will inflame the Left, who cannot win elections without ballot fraud.

Of course, Norm Eisen, Marc Elias, Mary McCord, and the lawfare ninjas will file lawsuits to negate any executive order on election procedures, and their select federal judges will issue injunctions against it. Which will provoke Mr. Trump, in turn, to go full Abe Lincoln on them and declare an insurgency requiring extraordinary executive powers to overcome the Left’s ploys — just as Mr. Lincoln had to overcome the traitorous Confederates of his time. That will get Mr. Trump branded “a super-tyrant.”

From that point, we’re really in uncharted territory. But, it being the nation’s 250th birthday and all, a great majority of US citizens may be in no mood by then for any further pranking and punking by the Left. They will be more than eager for trials, perhaps by military tribunals if the corrupt federal judiciary proves intractable.

This is the kind of thing we have to look forward to as 2026 keeps rolling out. But meanwhile, events might get even hotter over in Euroland. The joint is primed to blow. They’ve had enough jihad, too, and enough of the retarded political leadership that allowed it to be inflicted on the people of Europe. It’s already started. Ireland is about to go up in flames, a case of the government’s utter betrayal of the people. After Ireland, cue the United Kingdom. They’ve had enough of hostile Islam and Prime Minister Keir Starmer. It’s going to be a long, hot summer.

They don’t call this the Fourth Turning for nothing.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/were-really-uncharted-territory

'Great at gaming? US air traffic control wants you to apply'

People adept at video games should consider taking jobs as air traffic controllers, the US government has said, as it tries to address a shortage of workers in the sector.


In a new ad campaign, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is explicitly calling for gamers to apply for jobs in air traffic control when its hiring window opens next week.

The X-box one logo appears at the start of the video before dissolving into a montage that cuts between images of men playing various online computer games and people, including women, in air traffic control towers looking at their own computers.

"You've been training for this," the ad says.

The ad also highlights the salary on offer to controllers, saying it is $155,000 (£115,00) after three years of work.

US Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said in a statement that the FAA had to adapt in order to reach the next generation of air traffic controllers.

The new strategy tapped into "a growing demographic of young adults who have many of the hard skills it takes to be a successful controller", he said.

The campaign echoes one launched in 2021 under the Biden administration, called "level up", a phrase used to describe making progress in electronic games.


The Biden-era push was also aimed at persuading gamers to fill vacant controller jobs.

Air traffic control is crucial to maintaining safety for aircraft going in and out of airports. Controllers monitor and direct aircraft to avoid collisions and other issues at, above and around airports. Guides to the profession suggest the job requires quick decision-making under pressure as well as technical expertise.

However vacancies for controllers have been a problem for years, with the shortfall projected to grow each year for the next several years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The FAA said last year that it would be considered fully staffed with 14,663 active controllers. It was at least 3,000 controllers short at the time and said twice that many controllers were expected to leave their roles by 2028.

  

Duffy said on Friday that staffing was currently at its highest level in six years, but did not provide specific numbers.

Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, a labour union that represents controllers, said unions supported the strategy of recruiting gamers to tackle the shortage.

"Our union welcomes innovative approaches to expanding the candidate pool, including outreach to individuals with high-level aptitude skills such as gamers, so long as all pathways maintain the rigorous standards required of this safety-critical profession," Daniels said.

The recruitment drive comes after several high-profile incidents involving aircraft and air traffic control.



In early 2025, an army helicopter ran into a passenger jet mid-air above Ronald Reagan Airport near Washington DC, killing 67 people. This year, an Air Canada flight crashed into an airport fire truck at La Guardia Airport in New York, killing two pilots.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce84rvx0e6do

FCC Set To "Supercharge" Starlink Space Internet With "Seven-Fold More Capacity"

 Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr wrote on X that the agency will vote late this month on an order aimed at "supercharging" internet access by scrapping outdated power limits on satellite broadband, unlocking faster speeds, greater capacity, and more reliable service.

On April 30, the FCC will vote on "Modernizing Spectrum Sharing for Satellite Broadband," which would "promote efficient spectrum sharing between geostationary and non-geostationary satellite systems" and, in the FCC's own words, would "unlock more than $32 billion in economic benefits for the American people and up to seven-fold more capacity for space-based broadband services." 

FCC explained more:

Drawing from the state-of-the-art in satellite technology, the FCC's new technical rules would revise the decades-old framework for how Geostationary Orbit (GSO) and Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) systems share spectrum. That 1990s-era framework predates the revolutionary changes in spectrum sharing technology that have been developed in the decades since.

The FCC's new framework will enable faster speeds, lower costs, and greater reliability, representing another step to ensure that consumers benefit from competitive and affordable Internet options.

The move to modernize satellite internet is a big win for consumers, as it will hopefully increase upload and download speeds while lowering access costs.

Beyond consumers, the major winner is SpaceX's Starlink internet company, which has more than 10 million customers worldwide, nearly 4 million of whom are in North America (the US, Canada, and Mexico, with the US making up the vast majority).

The FCC is moving fast to unleash affordable, high-speed Internet. By discarding last century's satellite regulations, we could see billions of dollars in benefits for the American economy and broadband speeds many times faster than what is available today," Carr wrote in a statement. 

He continued, "This overdue rethinking of space spectrum sharing rules will bring greater competition to the broadband marketplace and reduce the number of satellites needed to serve a given area."

Great timing on modernizing space internet ahead of the SpaceX IPO, which is currently in nonpublic review with the SEC and slated for a public market listing in June.

Remember when the Biden-Harris regime tried to modernize broadband by spending $42 billion and connecting zero people. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/fcc-set-supercharge-starlink-space-internet-seven-fold-more-capacity