On January 15, 1948, John J. McCloy, President of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, announced that the Bank proposed to cooperate with any agencies created to implement the European Recovery Plan. He pointed out that for a few years the Bank's role in European economy would differ from the role envisaged for it by the Bretton Woods conference, and that the European Recovery Plan while overshadowing the activities of the Bank would also make it possible for the Bank to concentrate on financing specific “productive projects” by relieving it of the pressure of making loans intended primarily to meet “balance of payment deficits.”