Inter-American Development Bank

A long-standing initiative of the Latin American countries, the Inter-American Development Bank was established in 1959 as a development institution with novel mandates and tools. Its lending and technical cooperation programs for economic and social development projects went far beyond the mere financing of economic projects that was customary at the time.

The IDB’s programs and tools proved so effective that soon the IDB became the model on which all other regional and sub-regional multilateral development banks were created. Today, the IDB is the oldest and largest regional development bank. It is the main source of multilateral financing for economic, social and institutional development projects as well as trade and regional integration programs in Latin America and the Caribbean.