• The Global Transparency Resource
• Importance of Transparency
• IFI's Introduced
  • AfDB - African Development Bank
  • ADB - Asian Development Bank
  • BIS - Bank for International Settlements
  • BSTDB - Black Sea Trade and Development Bank
  • CDB - Caribbean Development Bank
  • CEB - Council of Europe Development Bank
  • EBRD - European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
  • ECB - European Central Bank
  • EIB - European Investment Bank
  • IADB - Inter-American Development Bank
  • IFC - International Finance Corporation
  • IMF - International Monetary Fund
  • IsDB - Islamic Development Bank
  • OECD - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
  • WB - World Bank
  • WTO - World Trade Organisation

IFC International Finance Corporation (Washington DC, United States of America)

The goal of the International Finance Corporation is to help improve the lives of people in the developing world. This is done by helping private industry in these countries to grow. The IFC provides loans to businesses that need funding to help them grow. In most cases these businesses are still at a point where they would have trouble attracting investors therefore the loan can often be the difference between growth and failure for the company. Clearly having a source of financing in these situations is important to the development of many nations.

The International Finance Corporation is a part of the World Bank; however they perform a very different role. The World Bank usually only provides loans to governments or agencies where the loan is guaranteed by the government in the nation they are lending to. It was realized not long after the founding of the World Bank that there was a need for funding of private corporations in the developing world. In order to do this the International Finance Corporation was formed. They rarely loan money to governments instead focusing their lending on private corporations in the developing world.

The main way in which the International Finance Corporation is able to help with development is by providing loans directly to new and growing businesses. In general they will not provide all or even most of the funding. In most cases there will already need to be a considerable amount to private money invested in the project before the IFC will get involved. This helps to ensure that they are only funding projects that have a real chance of working. Unfortunately it also means that a lot of good projects don't receive the funding that they need.

Obviously the amount of growth that a company can have with money they got from the International Finance Corporation is somewhat limited. Therefore one of the most important roles that the IFC provides is helping companies in the developing world to access capital markets. This can be a challenge for a lot of these companies because there are usually a number of requirements that have to be met before you can get funding in this way. It is rare for countries in the developing world to meet these requirements. The IFC can help them with this so that they are able to get the money that they need.

A lot of companies in the developing world and even the governments really don't know a lot about the way that modern finance works. This can be a serious handicap when it comes to growth. Therefore the IFC has also taken on the role of being an advisor that can offer technical assistance in these areas. This makes it possible for companies in the developing world to arrange their finances in the same way that companies in the developed world do. This provides them with the opportunity to compete in the global economy.