A shorthand for the system of international finance created in 1944 with the establishment of the International Monetary Fund, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), and the creation of a system of fixed exchange rates. This system lasted until 1971, when it gave way to floating exchange rates.
In 2007, the World Economic Forum and the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee (RBWC) made specific proposals for improvements in the exchange rate system that could help to prevent large, persistent economic imbalances of the kind that currently threaten world financial stability.
http://www.palgrave.com/products/Catalogue.aspx?is=0230524958 The International Monetary System, the IMF, and the G–20.