Multilateral development banks eye up to $400 billion more lending over 10 years

By Marcela Ayres

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Inter-American Development Bank on Saturday said leaders of 10 multilateral development banks committed to take action in five critical areas, including additional lending headroom totaling $300-400 billion over the next decade.

The effort comes amid growing calls for these institutions to boost financing under favorable conditions to developing countries, which face greater challenges in climate transition and are more affected by the environment of higher global interest rates.

"Together, we will be able to achieve more, with greater impact and on a larger scale," said IDB President, Ilan Goldfajn.

Following a retreat held in Washington at the IDB headquarters, on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings, the MDBs said the agreed plan involves "joint steps to work more effectively as a system," as reported by Reuters on Wednesday.

The group includes institutions such as the World Bank Group, the New Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the European Investment Bank, and the African Development Bank.

The IDB said in a statement that the increased financing capacity will be supported by the offer of innovative financial instruments and by promoting the channeling of the IMF's Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) through MDBs.

The IDB also foresaw actions "providing more clarity on callable capital, which would help rating agencies better assess the value of callable capital."

The MDBs also committed to boosting action on climate change, envisioning the delivery of a common approach to measuring climate results on adaptation and mitigation, and reporting climate financing jointly.

The other pillars of work agreed upon on Saturday include strengthening country-level collaboration and co-financing, catalyzing private-sector mobilization, and enhancing development effectiveness and impact.

(Reporting by Marcela Ayres; editing by Dan Burns and Diane Craft)