INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

The IDB, which was created in 1959, has its headquarters in Washington, DC. It is the oldest RDB to be established, and it represents the largest source of multilateral development financing for supporting socioeconomic development, institutional development projects, trade, and regional integration programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean. The IDB has 48 countries as its owners, which are made up of 26 Latin American and Caribbean states, 16 European countries, the US, Canada, Israel, China, Japan, and Korea. The 26 Latin American and Caribbean states are the borrowing member countries that regularly acquire loans from IDB, and the others constitute nonborrowing member countries.

The idea of creating a DFI for the Latin American region was initially proposed during the earliest efforts to establish an inter-American system at the First American Conference in 1890. The IDB came into fruition under an initiative, which was proposed by the then president of Brazil, Juscelino Kubitshek. The IDB was officially set up on 8 April 1959, the Organisation of American States drafting the Articles of Agreement to establish the bank.

The main goals of the IDB involve promoting poverty reduction, social equity, and environmentally sustainable economic growth. It focuses on the following priority areas in the attainment of these goals:

• • Fostering competitiveness by supporting policies and programmes that enhance a country's potential for development in the global marketplace.
• • Modernising the state by enhancing the level of efficiency and transparency in public sector institutions.
• • Investing in social programmes that are capable of expanding opportunities for the poor.
• • Promoting regional economic integration by fostering relations among countries in order to develop bigger markets for their commodities.

It also helps regional initiative efforts by providing information and knowledge to aid policy discourse and funding for technical cooperation in order to strengthen regional integration. It supports governments with technical assistance on issues regarding trade and regional integration and also undertakes public outreach programmes and activities targeted at promoting such integration. IDB uses its FSO to provide concessional lending.

CENTRAL AMERICAN BANK FOR ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) is an RDB founded in 1960 to promote integration and development among its member countries. It currently has two headquarters, one located in Tegucigalpa (Honduras) and the other in San Salvador (El Salvador), in addition to national offices in each Central American country. Its membership is as follows: ^[1]

permanent regional presence, thereby enhancing their global projection by supporting development in the founding countries.

• It also has beneficiary countries; in addition to regional countries, Belize joined the CABEI to acquire loans and guarantees. However, unlike the other member countries, Belize does not hold any shares of CABEI. Argentina and Colombia also benefit from receiving loans and guarantees from CABEI.

The process of Central American regional economic integration began on 13 December 1960 with the signing of the General Treaty on Central America Economic Integration. The signing of the treaty then resulted in the establishment of the CABEI, which has become the financial arm for the integration and development of Central America.

As a regional DFI, CABEI provides support for the public and private sectors of the economy. It focuses on acquiring funds and channelling these into promoting investments in its cores areas, including energy, infrastructure, industry, agricultural and rural development, human development, urban development and services for competitiveness, and financial trading and development finance.

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

The AfDB, or Banque Africaine de Development (BAD), was founded in 1964, headquartered in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire (but in 2003, the headquarters temporarily moved to Tunis, Tunisia, because of the Ivorian war and then returned in September 2014). Its owners are made up of 81 member countries (shareholders), comprising 54 African countries and 27 non-African countries. Two other entities are under the African Development Bank Group: the African Development Fund and the Nigeria Trust Fund.

The growing desire for more unity in the continent, after the colonial period in Africa, resulted in the creation of two draft charters, for establishing the Organisation of African Unity (founded in 1963 and replaced later by the African Union) and an RDB. An agreement for establishing the AfDB was prepared in 1963, and this materialised on 10 September 1964. The Bank was formally established under the auspices of the Economic Commission for Africa but started its operations in 1966. Although the bank initially had only African countries as members, a number of non-African countries have been allowed to join since 1982.

The overall objective of the AfDB Group is to spur sustainable economic development and social progress in its regional member countries (RMCs), thus contributing to poverty reduction. The AfDB Group focuses on mobilising resources and allocating them for investments in the RMCs. It also provides policy advice and technical assistance to support the development efforts of the RMCs. It serves the following primary functions:

• • Making loans and equity investments for the economic and social advancement of the RMCs.
• • Providing technical assistance for the development projects and programmes of the RMCs.
• • Promoting the investment of public and private capital for development.
• • Assisting in organising the development policies of RMCs.

The АЮВ is also expected to pay particular attention to national and multinational projects that are required to promote and facilitate regional integration.

Its main sources of financing include subscribed capital, reserves, borrowed funds, and accumulated net income. Its shareholding is structured in such a way that the two-thirds of the total capital is held by the RMCs, while one-third is held by nonregional members. AfDB is also a triple-A-rated institution, allowing it to borrow from the international capital markets on favourable terms. It provides finance to governments of African countries and private companies that invest in the RMCs. AfDB lends on a nonconcessional basis at market interest rates. It also provides development finance on concessional terms through the African Development Fund to its low- income member countries that do not qualify to obtain loans on nonconcessional terms. Funds for concessionary loans are typically obtained from the 27 nonregional members, which come in the form of grant contributions.

ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

The ADB was founded in 1966 with its headquarters based in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. With initial membership of 31 countries at its establishment, ADB is currently owned by 67 member countries, which are made up of 48 countries in the Asian and the Pacific regions and 19 from other parts of the world.

The idea for establishing the ABD was considered at the beginning of the 1960s. The proposal was to establish a financial institution that was Asian in nature to focus on fostering economic growth and cooperation in the region. In 1963, a resolution was subsequently passed to provide clear direction for establishing the Bank United. This was done at the first Ministerial Conference on Asian Economic Cooperation, which was held by the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East. The bank was eventually set up on 19 December 1966. The ADB served a predominantly agricultural region by providing assistance mainly in the areas of food production and rural development during the 1960s.

ADB focuses on promoting social and economic development in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. It is concerned with helping its member countries, specifically the developing countries, to pursue poverty reduction and improvement in the quality of life of citizens through equity investments, loans, guarantees, grants, technical assistance, and policy dialogue. Its core areas of interest include infrastructure (energy, ICT, transport, water, and urban development), environment, regional cooperation and integration, financial sector development, education, health, agriculture and natural resources, and public sector management.

Its main sources of finance include bond issues, recycled repayments on its loans, and member countries' contributions. A significant percentage of the cumulative lending it gives is from its ordinary capital. The concessional lending it provides to its developing member countries is done through the African Development Fund. It also manages a number of trust funds and assists in channelling grants from bilateral donor partners to the recipient countries.

EUROPEAN BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT

The EBRD is the youngest among the five main RDBs and was established in 1991 with its headquarters in London. The EBRD was established to promote a transition to market-oriented economies in the Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia countries. Its owners are made up of 65 countries and two intergovernmental institutions - the European Union and the European Investment Bank.

The EBRD was founded during the period of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and communism in Central and Eastern Europe, and these countries required support to develop a new private sector. The bank was set up after reaching agreements regarding its charter, size, and the share of power among the shareholders.

The EBRD is also a triple-А-rated institution, which allows it to borrow from international capital markets at favourable market rates. In spite of its public sector shareholders, the EBRB focuses its investments largely on private enterprises in collaboration with commercial entities. It is committed to developing democracies and building market economies in some Central European and Central Asian countries through its investments. The EBRD provides loans and equity finance, trade finance, project finance, leasing facilities, guarantees, and professional development through its support programmes. The EBRD also supports publicly owned companies in their privatisation efforts and is committed to promoting environmentally sound and sustainable development.

Importantly, apart from the multilateral and regional DFIs, bilateral DFIs are also established typically by developed countries to finance development projects in developing and emerging counties. In Chapter 1, we identified examples of bilateral DFIs that operate worldwide, targeting developing and emerging markets to include AFD/Proparco (France), Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries (BIO), BMI-SBI (Belgium), CDC Group (UK), CDP/SIMEST (Italy), COFIDES (Spain), Finn- fund (Finland), German Investment and Development Company (DEG), IFU (Denmark), Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), Nor- fund (Norway), OeEB (Austria), Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) in the US, SOFID (Portugal), Swedfund (Sweden), and Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets (SIFEM).

• [1] Its five founding countries are made up of Costa Rica, El Salvador,Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. These were the countries thatsigned the Founding Covenant establishing the CABEI. • It has two non-founding regional countries - Dominican Republic andPanama. • Its five nonregional countries are made up of Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Spain, and Taiwan. They joined the CABEI to have a