World Bank Group

The World Bank Group is the global development finance institution providing loans, grants, equity investments, and technical assistance to low- and middle-income countries. Founded at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, it is the world's largest source of long-term development finance and the principal multilateral lender to the developing world.

At a glance

• Founded: 1944 (Bretton Woods Conference July 1944; IBRD (the original World Bank) began operations 25 June 1946)
• Headquarters: usa-state/washington/" data-it-autolink="1">Washington, D.C., United States
• Official languages: English
• Website: www.worldbank.org

Mission

The World Bank's twin goals, set in 2013, are ending extreme poverty (reducing the global rate to 3 percent by 2030) and promoting shared prosperity (boosting incomes of the poorest 40 percent in every country). Lending focuses on infrastructure, education, health, public administration, and increasingly climate finance.

Structure

The Group consists of five institutions: the IBRD (lending to middle-income countries), IDA (grants and concessional loans to the poorest countries), IFC (private sector investment), MIGA (political risk insurance), and ICSID (investment dispute settlement). The President is by long-standing convention an American, nominated by the United States, and serves a five-year renewable term.

Member states

The IBRD — the original World Bank — has 189 member countries; IDA has 174. Membership effectively requires IMF membership, so the lists overlap closely.

Key facts

• The World Bank President has always been an American by an informal post-war agreement; the IMF Managing Director is by the same convention always European.
• IDA, the soft-loan window, is replenished every three years — the donors' commitments are one of the largest aid-funding decisions in development.
• The Bank's "Doing Business" report, which ranked countries on regulatory environment, was discontinued in 2021 after an internal audit found data manipulation favouring China.
• Climate finance commitments rose to a record $38 billion in fiscal year 2023, as the Bank repositions toward green development.
• Headquarters in Washington shares a Pennsylvania Avenue location with the IMF — both occupy a single block known informally as "the Bretton Woods complex".

Historic milestones