2.2 Administrative history.  The Loan Committee was responsible for reviewing all IBRD and IDA adjustment operations, debt operations, and Expanded Cofinancing Operations which provided policy-based quick-disbursing assistance to borrowing countries. In addition, a regional vice president could request that the Loan Committee review and provide guidance on any investment operation with exceptional or unusual features.  The Loan Committee was replaced in January 1996 by the Operations Committee and that Committee’s mandate was changed to concentrate on the review of Country Assistance Strategies and on select operations which warranted Bank-wide attention because of their policy implications, risks, innovative nature, etc.

3.1 Scope and content.  The records of the Loan Committee consist of three distinct types of files: minutes; records of the chairman; and background information.  The official Loan Committee minutes were maintained by the Bank's Central Files unit until 1987; this Central Files series is the first series of this fonds.  Thereafter the official set of minutes became the responsibility of staff attached to the office of the Committee chairman; the second and third series are these records.  Some gaps exist in the minutes, but records of these meetings may be found in the series of records of the chairman. 

In addition to the official minutes and agenda, the chairmen of the Commitee also maintained records.  While these partly duplicate the series of official minutes, they also contain handwritten notes and annotations revealing the chairman's personal reactions to proposals. 

Finally, one large series of records contains background information on projects and on the countries and regions in which the projects were situated.  While the series of minutes show the chronological development of lending, this background series enables the researcher to look at all projects in a country or region to understand the project emphases in a geographical area.  Taken together, the series in this fonds provide a comprehensive picture of the Bank's projects and the shifting priorities in lending policy over time. 

3.3 Accruals.   Accruals are expected.

3.4 Arrangement.  The fonds includes records arranged in the following seven series:

• Minutes of Loan Committee meetings, 1948-1987 
• Agenda, minutes, and other records of the Operations Committee, June 1987- May 1990
• Agenda and and minutes of meetings, and background documents: Loan Committee and Operations Committee, December 1991 - July 1997
• Operations Committee records of the Chairman (Moeen Qureshi)
• Minutes and other Loan Committee records of the Chairman (Ernest Stern), February 1993 - January 1995
• Loan Committee project files, 1971-1987 (predominant 1980-1987)
• Background records of the Loan Committee , 1984-1987

*NOTE*  Loan Committee/Operations Committee minutes for June 1990-December 1992; February – December 1995; and from August 1997 to the present. There are no Loan Committee/Operations Committee project files for 1948-1970, 1988 to the present.  There are very few for the 1970s.

4.1 Conditions of access.  Records are subject to the World Bank Policy on the Disclosure of Information.

4.2 Conditions of reproduction.  Records are subject to the Copyright Policy of the World Bank Group.

7.2 Rules or conventions.  Internal World Bank Group Archives rules.

7.3 Date(s) of descriptions.  24 June 2005; 11 November 2005; 16 November 2006