As part of its efforts to support countries during the global economic crisis, the IMF is beefing up its lending capacity and has approved a major overhaul of how it lends money by offering higher amounts and tailoring loan terms to countries’ varying strengths and circumstances.

At an April 2 summit in London of the Group of Twenty (G-20) major industrialized and emerging market economies, world leaders decided to dramatically increase the IMF’s lending capacity to support its ability to combat financial contagion, providing significant new financing and a broad mandate for action.

As a result, the resources the IMF has to support its members will be tripled to $750 billion. The summit also set a target to more than double concessional lending to the world’s poorest countries.

The IMF has already lent more than $50 billion to emerging market countries hit by the crisis and has extended credit to Mexico, Poland, and Colombia under a new flexible credit line. The IMF is also stepping up its lending to low-income countries, where the crisis is threatening to undermine recent economic gains and create a humanitarian crisis.