16 Facts About Paris Club

Paris Club is a group of officials from major creditor countries whose role is to find co-ordinated and sustainable solutions to the payment difficulties experienced by debtor countries.

Paris Club creditors provide debt treatments to debtor countries in the form of rescheduling, which is debt relief by postponement or, in the case of concessional rescheduling, reduction in debt service obligations during a defined period or as of a set date .

Paris Club was created gradually from 1956, when the first negotiation between Argentina and its public creditors took place in Paris.

Since 1956, the Paris Club has signed 433 agreements with 90 countries covering over US$583 billion.

When participating in Paris Club discussions, invited creditors act in good faith and abide by the practices described below.

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Chairperson of the Paris Club is Odile Renaud Basso, Director General of the French Treasury.

In particular, during negotiation sessions, the Chairman of the Paris Club plays the role of intermediary between creditors, who elaborate debt treatment proposals, and the representative of the debtor country, usually the Minister of Finance.

Paris Club is responsible for submitting to the debtor's delegation terms agreed upon by creditors.

Each session includes a one-day meeting called a “Tour d'Horizon” during which Paris Club creditors discuss debt situations of debtor countries, or methodological issues regarding the debt issues more broadly.

On 8 October 2003, Paris Club members announced a new approach that would allow the Paris Club to provide debt cancellation to a broader group of countries.

Apart from the HIPC initiative, the Paris Club adopted a new framework for debt restructuring in 2003, the Evian approach.

In particular, the Paris Club Forum aims at enhancing the involvement of emerging countries, be they creditors or debtors, in international debates on sovereign financing, in order to make discussions as open and frank as possible.

In 2005, after the tsunami which affected the countries bordering the Indian Ocean, the Paris Club decided to temporarily suspend some repayments of affected countries.

In January 2010, the Paris Club cancelled Haiti's debt to help it overcome the consequences of the earthquake of 12 January.

The recent deal with the creditors of the Paris Club and the Argentinian Government on 28 and 29 May 2014 is a landmark deal where an arrangement was made to clear the debt in the arrears which are due to the creditors of the Paris Club in a span of 5 years.

Paris Club created a new website in 2009 which reiterated the terms of all treatment given to 90 debtor countries.