G20 Finance Ministers

The G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (often shortened to "G20 FMCBG") is the senior body of the G20's finance track, distinct from the Sherpa track that handles non-financial issues. It brings together the finance ministers and central bank governors of the 19 member countries plus the European Union, joined since 2023 by the African Union as a permanent member.

The grouping predates the leaders' summit. It was established in 1999 in the wake of the Asian financial crisis, on the initiative of then-G7 finance ministers including U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and Canadian Finance Minister Paul Martin, who chaired the first meeting in Berlin in December 1999. For nearly a decade it was the G20's only formal configuration, until heads of state began meeting in Washington in November 2008 in response to the global financial crisis.

The FMCBG typically meets three to four times per year, usually on the margins of the IMF/World Bank Spring and Annual Meetings, with additional standalone meetings hosted by the rotating G20 presidency. Outputs take the form of communiqués rather than binding treaties.

Its agenda spans:

• Global growth and macroeconomic coordination, including the Framework Working Group's mutual assessment process
• International financial architecture, including IMF quota reviews and sovereign debt issues such as the Common Framework for Debt Treatments adopted in November 2020
• Financial regulation, working closely with the Financial Stability Board
• International taxation, most notably endorsing the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework's two-pillar agreement on a global minimum corporate tax in July 2021
• Climate finance, infrastructure, and digital payments

The FMCBG is supported by working groups and deputies meetings, and its conclusions typically feed upward into the leaders' summit declaration at year's end.