Faster approvals, simpler structure, and more impact will be hallmarks of World Bank, its chief says

World Bank Group President Ajay Banga kicked off the IMF and World Bank Group’s spring meetings last Thursday with a press conference at which he talked about challenges facing the global economy and how the group plans to expand its role in addressing them (watch, runtime: 34:26).

G20 wants the WB Group to play a larger role on the global scale: Banga touched on some of the most-talked-about global issues including climate change, food insecurity, pandemics, poverty, and scarce resources, saying that “G20 leaders challenged the World Bank Group to change and to be a bigger part of the solution,” with the bloc providing a roadmap of 27 recommendation for the group to boost the speed and simplicity of its processes, “leveraging our [the group’s] balance sheet, engaging partners and the private sector.

More bucks for more bang: The group has liberated USD 40 bn over the past 10 years from its balance sheet by adjusting its loan to equity ratio to be able to take part in more projects with bigger investments. The group plans to use some of its tools including the portfolio guarantee mechanism, and the hybrid capital instrument “ to leverage every dollar we receive, six to eight times over the coming decade,” Banga explained.

A new fund for cross-border projects: Earlier this month, the group “began offering 50-year financing through IBRD at no additional cost for projects that provide cross-border benefits,” said Banga, adding that the group has launched a “Livable Planet Fund that can be funded by governments, but also by philanthropies,” to finance these new incentives. “All these instruments, what they do is they help us support the ambitions of middle-income countries, but we must do all we can to lift up lower-income countries,” he highlighted.

Mobilizing funds for lower-income countries: The IDA replenishment is coming up at the end of 2024 and the group is aiming to pool together generous funds to refill the association’s coffers. “IDA is the largest source of concessional financing for lower-income countries,” said Banga.

Data openness to encourage private investment in developing economies: “Last month, we started to publish our proprietary data as a global public good to kind of inspire investor confidence,” said Banga, explaining that the group started by publishing private sector data by country income level, private sector default data categorized by credit rating, and sovereign default and recovery rate statistics dating back to 1985.

THE MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Holding steady? Traders around the world seem to be taking Iran’s missile and drone attack on Israel — unprecedented though it may be — with a grain of salt:

• US stock futures ticked up overnight and European futures inched down ever so slightly. All three major US indexes closed down last week;
• Gold and oil prices — both on an upward march of late, with gold having hit another all-time high last week — pulled back slightly yesterday;
• The USD is holding steady and BTC strengthened overnight.

HAPPENING NOW- Major Asian benchmarks are down across the board this morning. The Shanghai Composite is taking it in stride, off 0.3% in early trading, while the Hang Seng, Kospi, and Nikkei are all down 1.1-1.3%.

CORPORATE ACTIONS-

MBME Group approved paying shareholders 10% bonus shares as dividends for 2023 ,amounting to AED 250 mn, according to an ADX disclosure (pdf).

Burjeel Holdings approved an interim dividend distribution of AED 65 mn, equivalent to one fils per share, according to an ADX disclosure (pdf).

Abu Dhabi-based Eshraq Investments canceled over 135k of its treasury shares last week, reducing the firm’s capital by AED 135 mn, according to an ADX disclosure (pdf).

NCTH seeks shareholder approval to acquire Alpha Dhabi subsidiaries: The National Corporation for Tourism and Hotels’ general assembly is set to meet this Wednesday, 17 April to hold a shareholder vote on its proposal to merge three hotel businesses owned by Alpha Dhabi into its portfolio through a share swap agreement, according to an ADX disclosure. The targeted businesses for acquisition include ADH Hospitality, Murban (BVI) Holding, and Hill View Resorts in the Seychelles.