New World Bank Financing Tools Receive Funding Boost

New financial instruments designed to boost lending capacity and enable the World Bank Group(WBG) to take on more risk for shared global challenges have received a significant endorsement.

The World Bank Online Media Briefing Centre communicated this in a statement on Saturday in Abuja.

The statement said 11 countries announced commitments on Friday for the Portfolio Guarantee Platform, hybrid capital mechanism, and new Livable Planet Fund totaling 11 billion dollars.

“The WBG’s unique leveraging capability enables the resources pledged to hybrid capital and the Portfolio Guarantee Platform to be multiplied six to eight times over 10 years. “Under certain conditions, the leverage amount could reach tenfold.

“The resources pledged today could provide up to 70 billion dollars in urgently needed funds, which can be deployed to address cross-border challenges and advance development goals.”

It said Belgium, France, Japan, and the U.S. pledged to the Portfolio Guarantee Platform, while Denmark, Germany, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, and the UK made commitments to hybrid capital.

“Japan is committed to providing the first contribution to the new Livable Planet Fund.”

The statement quoted Ajay Banga, WBG President, as saying, “We worked hard to develop these new financial instruments that boost our lending capacity, multiply donor funds, and ultimately allow us to improve the lives of more people.

“The generosity of these countries is both an endorsement of the progress we have made to reform the bank and a sign of their shared commitment to development globally.”

It quoted Vincent Van Peteghem, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Belgium, as saying that Belgium was delighted to provide a 70 million dollar Portfolio Guarantee to the World Bank’s Global Solutions Accelerator Platform.

“Belgium strongly supports the WBG’s new vision to create a world free of poverty on a livable planet.

“This contribution will help to expand the bank’s lending capacity to assist International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) clients address global challenges.

“Such challenges include pandemic prevention and preparedness, including health system strengthening and climate change, as well as biodiversity.”

The statement quoted Andrew Mitchell, Deputy Foreign Secretary and Minister for Development and Africa, UK, as saying,

“If the world is serious about shifting the dial on poverty and climate change, we need to put our money where our mouth is; the World Bank’s efforts to mobilise extra funds do just that.

“Our pledge of 100 million pounds for hybrid capital, which will unlock one billion pounds of additional financing capacity over the next decade, will turbocharge our ability to tackle urgent global problems and deliver real impact.”

The statement said the WBG had implemented a series of reforms and developed innovative financial instruments as part of the Capital Adequacy Framework review, which was recommended by the G20 Expert Group.

It said the reforms include adjusting the loan-to-equity ratio to secure 40 billion dollars over 10 years from the IBRD’s balance sheet and increasing the bilateral guarantee limit by 10 billion dollars.

“Others are working to maximise callable capital benefits by publishing a detailed report for rating agencies to better assess its potential value and the bank’s financial capacity.

“Also introducing hybrid capital, giving shareholders and partners an opportunity to invest in bonds with special leveraging potential.”

The statement said another reform was developing the Portfolio Guarantee Platform which provided a shared approach to risk that would make the bank’s financing more widely available.

“Also, launching a Livable Planet Fund that enables governments’, philanthropies’ and other partners’ contributions to incentivise cooperation across borders and tackle shared challenges.”

The statement said the WBG had taken the additional steps to develop IBRD 50-year loans at no additional cost for borrowers.

It said the loans would be utilised for projects that provide cross-border benefits.

“Additionally, we created a system to reduce interest rates for projects that address global challenges, which will be partially funded through the Livable Planet Fund.