The seventh annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development took place in Mexico City, Mexico, from September 3 to 12, 1952, under the chairmanship of Horacio Lafer, Minister of Finance of Brazil. Two of the Boards seven plenary sessions were joint sessions with the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund. In presenting the seventh annual report of the Bank to the Board, the President (Black) indicated that private participation in Bank lending would become an increasingly important feature of its operations and that from then on European countries would have to rely more on their own savings and mobilize their own capital more effectively. Mr. Black said that “the Bank, should it be called on, would be glad to search for feasible ways to assist” the European Coal and Steel Community. At the opening session the Chairman (Lafer) stated that the International Monetary Fund “must take a more active role” in using its resources, helping its members find a practical solution to their ex-change problems, and providing greater facilities for meeting temporary un-balance in international payments. He said that “it would be preferable to establish a system which would not compel countries to resort to harmful regimes of severe restrictions”, and that without “an international mechanism capable of supplying credits to an extent corresponding to the general credit Worthiness of each country, it will be impossible to attain the kind of multilateral trade we all hope to restore.”