Inter-American Development Bank

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The Inter-American Development Bank (preferred abbreviation: IDB; but frequently given as IADB), was established and headquartered in Washington, DC in 1959 to support Latin American and Caribbean economic/social development and regional integration by lending mainly to public institutions.

The IDB has four official languages. In the three languages other than English, its official name is:

Spanish: Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo.
French: Banque Interaméricaine de Développement.
Portuguese: Banco Interamericano de Desenvolvimento.

In all three of the above languages, the Bank's name is abbreviated to "BID".

The Bank is owned by 47 member countries, the following 21 of which are lenders:

Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States.

The following 26 members are borrowers: Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Each member's voting power is determined by its subscription to the IDB's Ordinary Capital (US$ 101 billion^[1]), of which 30 % are held by the USA, 50.02 % by the Latin American and Caribbean states together.^[2]

The IDB is unique among development banks in that some of its members are also borrowers. Though this arrangement was first viewed as risky, it is believed by some that strict peer pressure prevents the borrowers from defaulting, even when they were under severe economic pressure. However, as addressed by FONDAD, Argentina had defaulted in 2001 which was publicly announced in 2002. [1]

On July 27, 2005, the Colombian diplomat Luis Alberto Moreno was elected to succeed Enrique V. Iglesias as President of the IDB.