Anniversaries of the Paris Club

Célébration of the 60th Anniversary of the Paris Club and welcome the Republic of Korea as its 21st member

On Friday 1 July 2016, the Paris Club hosted an international conference at the French Ministry of Finance to celebrate its 60th anniversary and welcome the Republic of Korea as its 21st member. 

The Paris Club gathered high-level officials for an international conference in Paris to take stock of 60 years of sovereign debt restructurings and to discuss the current and forward-looking challenges of sustainable financing, orderly sovereign debt restructuring and more generally the international financial architecture of official debt.

At the end of this conference, the Paris Club proudly welcomed Korea as its 21st member. After almost 20 years of cooperation with the Paris Club, the Republic of Korea has decided to become a full member. Korea’s membership will reinforce the Paris Club as the principal international forum for restructuring official bilateral debt, which allows more efficient, timely and orderly resolution of sovereign debt crises. It also demonstrates the Paris Club’s ability to expand its membership to emerging creditors on the basis of shared principles and to foster an open and constructive dialogue among sovereign creditors.

Opening statements

Odile RENAUD-BASSO, Director General of the Treasury and Chairperson of the Paris Club

Jacques de LAROSIÈRE,  Honorary Governor of Banque de France, former Chairman of the Paris Club

The Paris Club in the international financial system: 60 years of effective contribution from an informal institution

Benoît COEURÉ, Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank

Daniel Kablan DUNCAN, Prime Minister, Côte d’Ivoire

Christian NOYER, Honorary Governor of Banque de France and former Chairman of the Paris Club

Luiz PEREIRA DA SILVA, Deputy General Manager, Bank for International Settlements

Keynote intervention

Christine LAGARDE, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund

Sovereign actors and the changing landscape of official debt restructuring

Tiémoko Meyliet KONE, Governor of the Central Bank of the West African States

Joaquim LEVY, Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer, World Bank

Jean-Claude TRICHET, former President of the European Central Bank and former chairman of the Paris Club

Tao ZHANG, Deputy Governor, People’s Bank of China

Nathan SHEETS, Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs, United States

Concluding remarks

Michel SAPIN, Minister of Finance and Public Accounts, France

Sang Mok CHOI, Vice-Minister of Strategy and Finance, Republic of Korea

The Republic of Korea – Accession Ceremony as the 21st member of the Paris Club

50 years of the Paris Club

The Paris Club celebrated its fiftieth anniversary on June 14, 2006, by holding an international conference.

To commemorate its 50th anniversary, the Paris Club hosted an international conference in Paris on June 14, 2006, during which high-level figures reviewed the Club's activities since its creation in 1956 and discussed the major challenges of international financial architecture and the restoration of debt sustainability.

  • The conference brought together more than 300 people:
  • representatives of the Club member countries,
  • representatives of countries that have received debt treatment in recent years,
  • representatives of international organizations,
  • academics,
  • representatives of NGOs,
  • and journalists.

First roundtable, chaired by Mario Draghi, Governor of the Bank of Italy. Second roundtable, chaired by Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank.

Second roundtable, chaired by Donal Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank

Participants:

Xavier Musca, Chairman of the Paris Club

Stanley Fischer, Governor of the Bank of Israel

Mario Draghi, Governor of the Bank of Italy

Jacques de Larosière, Advisor to the Chairman of BNP Paribas, former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, former Chairman of the Paris Club

Mark Carney, Senior Deputy Minister of Finance of Canada

Enrique V. Iglésias, Secretary General of the Ibero-American Secretariat

Jean Lemierre, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

John Lipsky, Chief Economist of JP Morgan Chase

Sergei Stortchak, Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation

Donal Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank

Michel Camdessus, former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, former Chairman of the Paris Club

Agustin Carstens, Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund

Daniel Cohen, Professor of Economic Sciences, École normale supérieure

Vincenzo La Via, Chief Financial Officer, World Bank

Francesco Oddone, Eurodad

Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Minister of Finance of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank