The fund was originally authorized for two years, subject to extension by the President or Congress, and was made permanent under the Bretton Woods Agreement Act of 1945.
Under the Tripartite Agreement of 1936 the Treasury used the ESF to guarantee daily exchange rates under which it converted the dollar holdings of France and the United Kingdom to gold.
Because the use of the fund was left at the broad discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury, it proved highly adaptable to changes in the international monetary situation.
[8] With the establishment of the Bretton Woods system, the ESF contributed the initial US share of capital to the IMF and retreated to a secondary role.
From 1962 onward the ESF intervened increasingly in currency markets, with the support of the Federal Reserve and special borrowings, to prevent drains on US gold.
[12] The CARES Act of 2020, which provided economic relief during the COVID-19 pandemic, temporarily removed the post-2008 restrictions on the ESF and made a spectacular appropriation of $500 billion.
Of this amount up to $46 billion was available for loans or guarantees to air carriers and industries critical to national security, and the rest to support emergency credit facilities of the Federal Reserve.
The ESF provided these facilities with contributions of equity to protect the Federal Reserve from losses on loans made under high-risk pandemic conditions.