ADB extends $1.35-M grant

A $1.35-million grant will help strengthen financial institutions in which ADB invests to ensure that ADB’s private sector transactions are as high impact as possible.

ADB works with financial institutions – banks, insurance companies, non-bank credit companies, leasing companies, exchanges, and depositories – to help further mobilize savings and extend credit, and to help deliver ADB funds to sectors that cannot efficiently be reached directly by ADB’s operations.

The ADB only chooses financial institutions with high-potentials that would benefit both from financial assistance and knowledge transfer.

The grant will help improve corporate governance, combat money laundering and corruption, improve environment and social safeguards, and increase penetration into the small- and medium-sized enterprises market, with each activity customized to the needs of selected institutions.

Financial institutions that are or are expected to become ADB’s borrowers and investees based in key markets where ADB already has a dedicated staff for private sector operations, such as the People’s Republic of China, India, Philippines and Thailand.

"ADB’s private sector operations will concentrate on transactions offering the right combination of financial and developmental opportunities," says William Willms, an ADB Principal Structured finance specialist.

The project will be carried out over about two years.