Although not from a classic banking background (his career has included an eight-year stint as producer of a Colombian news programme), he is now in charge of the largest multilateral lender to the region.
It is a critical time for the IDB. Mr Moreno’s predecessor, Enrique Iglesias, held the post for 17 years, and Mr Moreno, by all accounts, means to make his own mark on the institution. “These are changing times in Latin America,” he notes. Most countries are now able to tap the capital markets directly and are no longer reliant on multilaterals like the IDB to meet financing needs. “In those circumstances, how does an institution like this one remain relevant and grow? That’s our biggest challenge and something we have to work hard at every day,” he says.
A focus on poverty seems to be one part of the game plan. In June, the bank launched its Building Opportunity for the Majority initiative, an effort to concentrate on the 70% of Latin Americans who earn less than $300 a month. Mr Moreno is also big on helping the 8.5 million children in the region who do not have a birth certificate – they face an ID-less existence that puts them at a huge disadvantage throughout life.
Alternative energy and biofuels and greater lending to the private sector are some of the other areas he emphasises. “We have to realign the bank to be more flexible and to have much more country focus,” he says.
That is easier said than done: bank insiders warn that the IDB is a huge institution and may take a long time to turn around.
