Inter-American Development Bank
 |
|
| Abbreviation | IDB/BID |
|---|---|
| Established | 1959 |
| Type | International organization |
| Headquarters | 1300 New York Avenue NW Washington, D.C. United States |
|
Membership
|
48 countries |
|
Official language
|
English, French, Portuguese, Spanish |
|
President
|
Luis Alberto Moreno |
|
Main organ
|
Board of Governors |
|
Staff
|
About 2,000 |
| Website | iadb.org |
The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB or IDB or BID) is the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean. Established in 1959, the IDB supports Latin American and Caribbean economic development, social development and regional integration by lending to governments and government agencies, including State corporations.
The IDB has four official languages: English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. Its official names in the other three languages are as follows:
In all three other languages the Bank uses the acronym "BID".
At the First Pan-American Conference in 1890, the idea of a development institution for Latin America was first suggested during the earliest efforts to create an inter-American system. The IDB became a reality under an initiative proposed by President Juscelino Kubitshek of Brazil. The Bank was formally created on April 8, 1959, when the Organization of American States drafted the Articles of Agreement establishing the Inter-American Development Bank.
The Bank is owned by 48 sovereign states, which are its shareholders and members. Only the 26 borrowing countries are able to receive loans.
The IDB is the largest multilateral source of financing for the Latin America and the Caribbean region. The IDB makes loans to the governments of its borrowing member countries at standard commercial rates of interest, and has preferred creditor status, meaning that borrowers will repay loans to the IDB before repaying other obligations to other lenders such as commercial banks.
The IDB is governed by its Board of Governors, a 48-member body who regularly meets once a year. In March 2010, reunited in Cancun, Mexico, the Board of Governors of the Bank agreed on a $70 billion capital increase, along with full debt forgiveness for Haiti, its poorest member country, devastated by an earthquake that had destroyed its capital, Port-au-Prince, two months before.
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Wikipedia