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The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is an international financial institution that offers investment, advisory, and asset-management services to encourage private-sector development in less developed countries. The IFC is a member of the World Bank Group and is headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It was established in 1956, as the private-sector arm of the World Bank Group, to advance economic development by investing in for-profit and commercial projects for poverty reduction and promoting development. The IFC's stated aim is to create opportunities for people to escape poverty and achieve better living standards by mobilizing financial resources for private enterprise, promoting accessible and competitive markets, supporting businesses and other private-sector entities, and creating jobs and delivering necessary services to those who are poverty stricken or otherwise vulnerable.Since 2009, the IFC has focused on a set of development goals that its projects are expected to target. Its goals are to increase sustainable agriculture opportunities, improve healthcare and education, increase access to financing for microfinance and business clients, advance infrastructure, help small businesses grow revenues, and invest in climate health.The IFC is owned and governed by its member countries but has its own executive leadership and staff that conduct its normal business operations. It is a corporation whose shareholders are member governments that provide paid-in capital and have the right to vote on its matters. Originally, it was more financially integrated with the World Bank Group, but later, the IFC was established separately and eventually became authorized to operate as a financially autonomous entity and make independent investment decisions. It offers an array of debt and equity financing services and helps companies face their risk exposures while refraining from participating in a management capacity. The corporation also offers advice to companies on making decisions, evaluating their impact on the environment and society, and being responsible. It advises governments on building infrastructure and partnerships to further support private sector development. The corporation is assessed by an independent evaluator each year. In 2011, its evaluation report recognized that its investments performed well and reduced poverty, but recommended that the corporation define poverty and expected outcomes more explicitly to better-understand its effectiveness and approach poverty reduction more strategically. The corporation's total investments in 2011 amounted to $18.66 billion. It committed $820 million to advisory services for 642 projects in 2011, and held $24.5 billion worth of liquid assets. The IFC is in good financial standing and received the highest ratings from two independent credit rating agencies in 2018.IFC comes under frequent criticism from NGOs that it is not able to track its money because of its use of financial intermediaries. For example, a report by Oxfam International and other NGOs in 2015, "The Suffering of Others," found the IFC was not performing enough due diligence and managing risk in many of its investments in third-party lenders.Other criticism focuses on IFC working excessively with large companies or wealthy individuals already able to finance their investments without help from public institutions such as IFC, and such investments do not have an adequate positive development impact. An example often cited by NGOs and critical journalists is IFC granting financing to a Saudi prince for a five-star hotel in Ghana. History The World Bank and International Monetary Fund were designed by delegates at the Bretton Woods conference in 1944. The World Bank, then consisting of only the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, became operational in 1946. Robert L. Garner joined the World Bank in 1947 as a senior executive and expressed his view that private business could play an important role in international development. In 1950, Garner and his colleagues proposed establishing a new institution for the purpose of making private investments in the less developed countries served by the World Bank. The U.S. government encouraged the idea of an international corporation working in tandem with the World Bank to invest in private enterprises without accepting guarantees from governments, without managing those enterprises, and by collaborating with third party investors. When describing the IFC in 1955, World Bank President Eugene R. Black said that the IFC would only invest in private firms, rather than make loans to governments, and it would not manage the projects in which it invests.The concept was nonetheless controversial in the US, where some business interests were uncomfortable with the public ownership of private firms. Nonetheless, in 1956, the International Finance Corporation became operational under the leadership of Garner. It initially had 12 staff members and $100 million (equivalent to $1121 million in 2023) in capital. The corporation made its inaugural investment in 1957 by making a $2 million (equivalent to $22 million in 2023) loan to a Brazil-based affiliate of Siemens & Halske (now Siemens AG).In 2007, IFC bought 18% stake in the Indian Financial firm, Angel Broking. In December 2015, IFC supported Greek banks with 150 million euros by buying shares in four of them: Alpha Bank (60 million), Eurobank (50 million), Piraeus Bank (20 million) and National Bank of Greece (20 million). Governance The IFC is governed by its Board of Governors which meets annually and consists of one governor per member country (most often the country's finance minister or treasury secretary). Each member typically appoints one governor and also one alternate. Although corporate authority rests with the Board of Governors, the governors delegate most of their corporate powers and their authority over daily matters such as lending and business operations to the board of directors. The IFC's Board of Directors consists of 25 executive directors who meet regularly and work at the IFC's headquarters, and is chaired by the President of the World Bank Group. The executive directors collectively represent all 186 member countries. When the IFC's Board of Directors votes on matters brought before it, each executive director's vote is weighted according to the total share capital of the member countries represented by that director.IFC is currently led by Makhtar Diop who was appointed as the institution's Managing Director and Executive Vice President in February 2021. Prior to this appointment, he was the World Bank's Vice President for Infrastructure, where he led the Bank's global efforts to build sustainable infrastructure in developing and emerging economies. Although the IFC coordinates its activities in many areas with the other World Bank Group institutions, it generally operates independently as it i.... Discover the Finance Corporation popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Finance Corporation books.