Joint report confirms strength of MDBs’ financial positions and unique contribution to advancing international development

Paris – Today, for the first time, the Multilateral Development Banks Comparison Report 2025 is published. This is a joint MDB initiative to enhance transparency and comparability of their financial positions. The new report offers a clear picture of how MDBs as a group provide a powerful platform to multiply the impact of shareholder capital for the global community and are uniquely positioned to contribute to the international development agenda.

The Comparison Report is an invaluable tool for understanding the strength of MDBs’ financial positions, covering critical metrics on liquidity, credit ratings, leverage and risk management. The report collates and presents – in a standardised manner – data drawn from individual institutions’ financial reports as well as the assessments of the main credit rating agencies, notably Fitch, Moody’s and Standard and Poor. By demonstrating the individual and collective strengths of the MDBs, the report confirms their ability to mobilise resources to deliver on their mandates, while working as a system to achieve more for international development.

Key messages from the report:

• MDBs maintain strong capital and liquidity positions, consistent with their high credit ratings, allowing them to provide stable, low-cost financing to clients and to support their development objectives
• The MDB model is very effective at making the most of shareholders’ resources. By mobilising capital market financing, MDBs have leveraged US$150 billion of paid-in capital - contributed by their shareholders over time - to over US$1.4 trillion of development assets
• The geographical spread of MDB mandates ensures global reach, together with a regional-specific effectiveness
• By working as a system, MDBs have created innovative instruments that help free up capital and reduce risk, notably by using risk transfers, including Exposure Exchange Agreements and guarantees supported by highly-rated shareholders

The Comparison Report is a concrete step in the implementation of the recommendation by the G20 Independent Review of MDBs’ Capital Adequacy Frameworks (CAF) to improve visibility around capital adequacy and financial resilience, while promoting a better understanding of their financial models and supporting both balance sheet optimisation and private sector mobilisation, as advocated by the Heads of MDBs Group at their Paris meeting in June. CAF implementation continues to remain prominent under the G20 Roadmap Toward Better, Bigger and More Effective MDBs.

The Report was coordinated by the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB), as Chair of the Heads of MDBs Group, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). It is the result of a collaborative effort from the Global Risk and Financial Forum (GRaFF), which brings together Chief Risk Officers (CROs) and Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) from MDBs. [1]

[1] The banks participating in the report are: African Development Bank (AfDB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank (EIB), InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB), IDB Invest, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Development Association (IDA), International Finance Corporation (IFC), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), New Development Bank (NDB), Nordic Investment Bank (NIB).

Links:

MDBs Comparison report – 2025
Annex I Comparison tables
Annex II Companion reference

Media contacts:

Silvia Zucchini, CEB Head of Communications, Phone: +33 1 47 55 71 15 e-mail: CEBcommunications@coebank.org