The World Bank mobilized a record $112 billion in private capital in the year ended June, up from $69 billion a year earlier. President Ajay Banga is standardizing loans and adding securitization tools to pull in institutional money, with a goal of more than doubling that figure within two to three years.
A record year for private mobilization
The World Bank on Thursday said it attracted $112 billion in private capital in the year ended June, versus $69 billion a year earlier and more than triple the amount in fiscal 2022, before Banga became president. The bank said the figure is in addition to $123 billion from its own resources for that year, for a combined $235 billion.
Banga wants to more than double private capital mobilization, aiming for over $200 billion within two to three years. According to Reuters: "That's where the large pools of money are, and they don't come for individual projects", he said, describing why the bank is standardizing and packaging loans to appeal to pension funds, insurers and asset managers such as BlackRock.
Streamlining the bank to attract institutional money
Banga convened a Private Sector Investment Lab after taking office in June 2023, tapping outside experts to address the regulatory uncertainty, political risk and currency challenges that have kept private firms from investing at scale in developing countries. The bank has since assigned a single manager as country liaison instead of splitting the role across World Bank, IFC and other units, and has cut average project approval times from a year or more to nine months.
The International Finance Corporation, the bank's private-sector arm, is also pushing an "originate-to-distribute" model: rather than holding loans on its balance sheet, it packages them into securities and sells them to outside investors. It closed its first collateralized loan obligation in September 2025, a $510 million deal bundling loans from 57 borrowers across developing economies, and is targeting $20 billion in annual guarantee issuance by 2030.
Projects in Argentina and Guatemala show the model at work
The bank's efforts helped fund a Rio Tinto greenfield lithium project in northwestern Argentina, where an IFC loan of $400 million helped attract $775 million from other lenders, pushing the total committed, combined with equity and debt, to $2.5 billion. In Guatemala, Banco Industrial secured a $100 million loan plus a bond that drew more than 190 global investors, including PIMCO, and was 3.6 times oversubscribed.
About 40% of World Bank lending last fiscal year went into infrastructure, while 26% went to regulatory reform projects. Private capital flows rose sharply to lower-middle-income and upper-middle-income countries and across Africa, while remaining steady for low-income countries, as borrowing nations increasingly seek private investment instead of relying on external aid.
Sources: Investing.com, Crypto Briefing
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