Since his appointment as president of the World Bank Group on June 2, Ajay Banga has been on a world tour to “write a new playbook” for the 78-year-old multilateral development bank.
The course of the tour will range from the small island states in the Pacific to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and north Africa, west and east Africa, Europe, and Asia. For example, he recently joined Inter-American Development Bank president Ilan Goldfajn on visits to Peru and Jamaica, as well as spoke at the G20 India Leaders Summit.
The main aim is to build strategic partnerships with other multilateral banks and development organisations, work to identify barriers to private sector investment and deepen the relationships with the countries the World Bank serves.
At the front of the World Bank’s new agenda is the climate crisis, which is a stark departure from the stance of previous World Bank president, David Malpass. Mr Banga has pledged to overhaul the institution’s balance sheet without impacting its credit rating. He plans to expand the bank’s resources using a range of measures to leverage existing resources, such as hybrid capital and callable capital.
The annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, being held in Marrakech October 9–15, will tackle the intertwined challenges facing the global community, including climate, conflict, pandemics, poverty and fragility. This is the first such event to be held on the African continent for 50 years.
In the lead up to the meetings, we have addressed a number of these issues in our October edition.
In this month’s cover story, Anita Hawser investigates why banks continue to funnel financing to fossil fuel companies that are in expansion mode. She also explores what a just, orderly and responsible transition to net zero emissions should look like.
In other sustainability coverage, we have published the second annual Sustainable Banking Revenues Ranking 2023, based on research by sustainable economy experts Corporate Knights, which looks at how much of banks’ overall revenue is being generated from sustainable lending, investments and underwriting.
And in our monthly Issuer column, Shanny Basar reports on the World Bank’s pioneering emission reduction-linked bond issuance.
We also invited several world leaders to provide their opinions on pressing issues today. For example, Enoch Godongwana, South Africa’s minister of finance, writes about how infrastructure investment, in collaboration with the private sector and international partners, is vital for the country’s future.
Mary Ellen Iskenderian, president and CEO of Women’s World Banking, explains why gender equality is the most urgent climate action of all; and Michael Wiegand, director of Financial Services for the Poor at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, says that a new approach to financial inclusion is needed.
In Latin America, Chile’s minister of the economy, Nicolás Grau, writes about the opportunities to be found in moving to a greener global economy, while Leonardo Villar, governor of the Banco de la República, looks at how the central bank is delivering on its price stability mandate, in spite of the significant challenges and risks in the inflationary outlook.
While Natia Turnava, the first vice-president of the National Bank of Georgia, writes about using every tool in her toolbox to help the country weather economic, climate and dollarisation headwinds, Bosnia-Herzegovina’s central bank governor, Senad Softić, explains how payment systems create greater financial stability.
And HE Mohammed al Jadaan, Saudi Arabia’s finance minister, highlights how collaboration to solve the world’s most pressing challenges is an urgent priority in an increasingly fragmented world.
During the event, watch the View from IMF video series with our editorial team on the ground in Marrakech, including interviews with:
- Tim Adams, president and CEO, Institute of International Finance
- Makhtar Diop, managing director, International Finance Corporation
- Carlos Fernandes, finance minister, Paraguay
- Dinesh Kumar Khara, chairman, State Bank of India
- Abebe Selassie, director of the African department, International Monetary Fund
Access all our on-the-ground coverage here.
Joy Macknight is editor of The Banker. Follow her on X (formerly known as Twitter) @joymacknight
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