The Administrative Council is the Centre's plenary organ. Each State party to the Convention is represented in it. During the Convention's drafting, the idea to limit the size of the Administrative Council did not prevail (History, Vol. II, p. 132). A suggestion to restrict membership of the Administrative Council to member States of the World Bank also did not succeed (at pp. 660, 685/6). The Convention's text, as eventually adopted, makes it clear that alternate representatives will be entitled to participate and to act only in case where the principal representative is absent or unable to act (History, Vol. I, pp. 30, 32; Vol. II, pp. 132, 314, 685/6, 690, 713, 750).

Art. 4(2) provides that, in principle, the Administrative Council is composed of the same persons as the World Bank's Board of Governors. These are generally the ministers responsible for finance of the countries concerned. States parties to the Convention may make a different designation if they wish. States parties to the Convention that are not members of the World Bank (see Art. 67, paras. 3–8) will have to make designations to the Administrative Council.