This book features an in-depth comparative study of South American National Development Bank’s governance systems. It explores the relationship between bank governance and performance frameworks, both in terms of financial-economic indicators and development impact. It seeks to observe, analyze, and compare governance arrangements used by different development banks as tools to overcome the challenges associated with state-ownership while remaining financially sustainable and aligned with their policy mandates.

For a long time the topic of national development banks was limited to a debate between admirers and detractors of these institutions, often inserted into a more general debate of state versus markets. Since the 2007/8 North Atlantic financial crisis however, interest and support for these institutions has broadly increased in both developing and developed countries. Key issues such as understanding how development banks work, what their main aims are, and what their links with the private financial and corporate sector are have come to the forefront, and there is an increased interest in what instruments, incentives, and governance work better in general and in particular contexts. The Future of National Development Banks provides an in-depth study of several key examples of these institutions based in Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Germany, Mexico, and Peru. It explores horizontal issues such as their role in innovation and structural change, sustainable infrastructure financing, financial inclusion, and regulatory rules. It provides both research and policy-oriented perspectives on how these banks can make a significant contribution to a countries' development, and analyses their roles within broader economic policy, their governance, and the main instruments they use to perform their function. The Future of National Development Banks has important policy implications for countries that have these institutions and can improve them, and countries that do not have them yet and can learn from best practice.

Significant investments are needed to support the global transition to a low-carbon, climate resilient future. Current finance flows fall short of global financing needs, and massive scaling up is needed to unlock additional financial resources and foster a sustainable investment pathway. Overcoming barriers to private sector investments is critical, and international climate finance can play a catalytic role in this regard. National development banks (NDBs) have a unique role in this context, both complementing and catalyzing private sector players. This publication discusses the unique role that NDBs could play in scaling up private financing for climate change mitigation projects through the intermediation of international and national public climate finance in their respective local credit markets and the conditions that would be needed for them to be most effective. It draws from experiences in international climate finance and best practices, processes, and products of NDBs within the Latin American and Caribbean region.

At the 1964 annual meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Panama, Felipe Herrera, then the President of the institution, argued that Cour institution must continue to demonstrate that, being a bank, it is also more than a bank. What is this institution that had the backing of both Latin American countries and the United States, and that since Herrera many have claimed it is more than a bank? And how did it come into existence?