Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

Abstract

The Bank was founded in April 1959, under the Agreement Establishing the InterAmerican Development Bank, to finance economic and social development projects and to provide technical assistance in member countries. It initially had an authorized capital stock of US $850m. The present financial resources of the Bank consist of the ordinary capital (which includes subscribed capital, paid-in capital and reserves), funds raised in capital markets through bond issues, the Fund for Special Operations, and trust funds. The powers of the IDB are vested in a Board of Governors, on which each member country is represented by one Governor and one alternate. Executive powers are delegated to an Executive Board of 12 Directors, eight of whom are elected by regional member countries, two by member countries not in the region, one by Canada and one by the USA. Voting is on a weighted basis, the USA holding 30% of the votes in respect of its capital contribution. The IDB’s ordinary capital totalled $101,000m. in 2001. The paid-in portion of subscriptions accounts for 4.3% of the total. The remainder is callable capital, which, together with the preferred creditor status afforded the IDB by its borrowing member countries, serves as backing for the Bank’s borrowings in the world’s financial markets. The Bank has an annual lending capacity of about $8,500m. to finance public-and private-sector projects, sector and policy reform programmes, emergency operations for natural disasters and financial crises, credit guarantees, and reimbursable technical co-operation. The Bank is owned by its 46 member countries. In the Americas there are 26 borrowing member countries (Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela) and two non-borrowing countries (Canada and the USA). There are a further 18 non-borrowing member countries from outside the region: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.

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