What is the precise role of the IMF in the credit crisis? What's the precise role of the World Bank?

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the IMF, has said the IMF was willing to lend to countries in dire need of capital.

To understand what role the IMF should play in this saga, we must know the history of the IMF. The IMF and World Bank were both established in July 1944 at a conference in Bretton Woods, NH during the closing phases of WW2. The main debate was between the US and British delegation, debate revolving around liberal and conservative visions of what a global economic institution such as the IMF should provide. In a nutshell, should the IMF operate as a fund (the liberal view) or more like a bank (the conservative view)?

Keynes, who led the British delegation, imagined the IMF as a co-operative fund which member states should draw upon during periodic crises, to maintain economic activity and employment. The US view was an institution like a bank to ensure borrowing states could pay their debts, less concerned about preventing recession and unemployment. The tougher, US conservative view prevailed.

Since WW2, IMF has loaned funds to governments facing economic crises. These loans, which have engendered controversy, have been termed structural adjustment loans as their purpose is to help borrowing governments adjust the structure of economic activity.

The World Bank has pledged aid to developing countries over the weekend to help stem the crisis. WB President Robert Zoellick declared the financial crisis a "manmade catastrophe" and added that despite the crisis "aid flows must be maintained".