[...] Major decisions require 85 per cent of the vote. Not incidentally, the United States holds about 16 per cent of the shares in both institutions, and therefore wields de facto veto power. The next largest shareholders are France, Germany, Japan and the UK--all members of the G7. Middle- and low-income countries, which together constitute some 85 per cent of the world's population, have only about 40 per cent of the world. [...]