In the second quarter of 2024, the Public Development Banks (PDBs) and Development Financing Institutions (DFIs) database systematically updated the list of global PDBs and DFIs on a solid basis. This update adds two new institutions and removes two existing institutions, leaving the total number of PDBs and DFIs in the database unchanged at 533. These updates well reflect our commitment to maintaining a comprehensive database in a proactive and rigorous manner to lay the foundation for the in-depth research on PDBs and DFIs.

New Additions and Removals

Based on information provided by colleagues from French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement, AFD) regarding potential public development financial institutions, we conducted a thorough investigation and successfully identified the National Mortgage Company (NMC) in Armenia, and the Bangladesh Infrastructure Finance Fund (BIFFL) as DFIs and incorporated them in our database with their basic information and financial data as below:

(Please refer to the official PDB and DFI database for more detailed information.)

For the institutions currently covered in the database, we have decided to remove the National Development Fund of Saudi Arabia (NDF) and Credit Insurance Company (COSEC). The reason for removing NDF is that the institution functions more as a supervisory entity managing various development funds and banks without providing any financial instruments or services itself. Therefore, the institution does not meet our second qualification criteria as a PDB or DFI, which is to provide fund-reflow-seeking financial instruments as the main products and services. In addition, COSEC is removed from the database because it has become a private equity company, 100% owned by Allianz Trade since 2023. This violates the fifth qualification criterion requiring a PDB or DFI to must have the government steering of corporate strategy.

To qualify as a PDB or DFI, an institution must strictly meet all the five qualification criteria as follows:

1)      Being a standalone entity.

2)      Providing fund-reflow-seeking financial instruments as the main products and services.

3)      Funding sources going beyond periodic budgetary transfers.

4)      Having a proactive public policy orientation.

5)      Government steering of corporate strategies.

Quality Control Process

To further ensure the accuracy and reliable of the list of PDBs and DFIs, we implemented three rounds of quality control. In the first round, our research specialists consistently applied operational indicators of the qualification criteria, and documented supporting evidence obtained from the institutions’ official websites. Subsequently, a peer senior researcher verified the supporting evidence to ensure the reliability and accuracy. In the final round, (co-)principal investigators from the PKU, AFD, and FERDI team provided final verification on the updates to PDBs and DFIs database.

Forthcoming Steps

In the next step, the database team will continue to periodically update the list of PDBs and DFIs while systematically collecting their basic information and financial data. In the next quarter, we are going to prepare for attending the “Finance in Common Summit 2024”, publishing the fifth database flagship report and sharing the latest progress in our working papers. We are looking forward to exploring further discussion and collaboration to advance the database building and unleash the full potential of PDBs and DFIs worldwide.

To learn more, please visit our data visualization website (http://www.dfidatabase.pku.edu.cn/) and download the database for free. For using the information from the database, please cite: Xu, Jiajun, Régis Marodon, Xinshun Ru, Xiaomeng Ren, and Xinyue Wu. 2021. “What are Public Development Banks and Development Financing Institutions? ——Qualification Criteria, Stylized Facts and Development Trends.” China Economic Quarterly International, volume 1, issue 4: 271-294; database DOI：https://doi.org/10.18170/DVN/VLG6SN.

We welcome feedback from academia, policymakers, practitioners from PDBs and DFIs, and other stakeholders to provide constructive suggestions and fill gaps in the database. Please contact us at nsedfi@nsd.pku.edu.cn.