The IMF was created in 1944 at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire at the instigation of John Maynard Keynes and Harry Dexter White to promote international monetary stability. It was to serve as the source of short-term credit for the governments of the world. The IMF is funded by quota deposits from the parties to the agreement in share amounts established by the agreement. The quota deposits are partly in gold (25%) and partly (75%) in the country's currency. The voting power in the control of the IMF is based upon the relative sizes of the quota payments. The United States had and still has the largest quota share. The membership and shares have changed over time however. In addition to funding from the quota payments of members, the IMF can borrow in the world capital markets.

A special unit of account was created for the IMF's accounting and operations. It is called a Special Drawing Right (SDR) and sometimes is referred to as "paper gold." SDR's are a country's holding of account with the IMF and serve as part of that country's international monetary reserve, along with its holdings of gold and hard currencies. The value of an SDR is based upon a weighted average of the value of the currencies of the five IMF members with the largest international trade. It thus has a value comparable to a basket of U.S. dollars, German Deutsche marks, Japanese yen, French francs and British pounds. The current composition of the SDR is 58.2 American cents, 44.6 german pfennig, 27.2 Japanese yen, 10.5 British pence and 81.3 French centimes. The value of an SDR is about $1.36. The weights, the composition of the market basket of currencies, are revised every five years. The accounts of the IMF are compiled in terms of SDR's.