The International Monetary Fund should stop offering long-term finance to developing countries, leaving the World Bank to be the global development agency, a high-level independent committee reported on Tuesday.

In a hard-hitting report on the lack of collaboration between the two international financial institutions, a six-strong committee concluded that the fund had spread its wings too far over poor countries, its work overlapped with the World Bank and that it should refocus its efforts on macroeconomic areas where it had greater expertise.