The International Monetary Fund has given itself a scathing review for its mistakes in spotting the roots of the global crisis. It acknowledged it fell short in its job as the world's main financial system supervisor.
In a series of papers that look at the initial lessons from the crisis, the IMF said a patchwork of uncoordinated oversight and ineffective messaging failed to spot and call attention to the risk that a global credit boom could burst spectacularly, triggering the worst global slump in decades.
The IMF said warnings before the crisis, including its own, were too scattered and unspecific to force policy-makers to act, let alone prompt collective policy action.
In the long list of its failings, it acknowledged its surveillance either missed or underestimated risks, while complacency was encouraged by its optimistic bottom-line assessments and hedged messages.
Several countries, including emerging market economies, have long called for an overhaul of the IMF's surveillance, saying its oversight can only be effective when it is willing to speak its mind on issues affecting both industrialised and emerging economies.
