Maintaining the IMF board size at 24, rather than the 20 stipulated in the Fund's articles of agreement, requires an 85 per cent majority vote every two years, meaning the US, with nearly 17 per cent of the vote, can block this. The US finally made good on previous threats and vetoed the decision in August, meaning that unless it changes its position, the IMF board will shrink to 20 seats by the end of October. Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr, the Brazilian IMF executive director said it was a "fully-fledged, possibly unprecedented crisis." Domenico Lombardi of UK think-tank the Oxford Economic Policy Institute called it "an aggressive move generated by a strong sense of frustration at what the US sees as a European inability to foster the process of IMF reform." 9/30/10
