In the fourth quarter of 2023, we mainly focused on updating the comprehensive list of Public Development Banks (PDBs) and Development Financing Institutions (DFIs) worldwide. The latest updates added in 7 institutions identified as PDBs and DFIs, expanding the database to encompass 533 institutions from 155 countries and economies.

We have taken a proactive effort to update the list of PDBs and DFIs worldwide. First, we had thorough communication with relevant associations such as the Brazilian Development Association (Associação Brasileira de Desenvolvimento, ABDE) and the Montreal Group to assess whether their members can be classified as DFIs. By doing so, we successfully identified the State Development Bank of Espírito Santo from Brazil, and TAMWILCON from Morocco as DFIs, and incorporated them into our database. Second, we proactively engaged with practitioners to discover any missing DFIs. For instance, the engagement with practitioners at the fourth Finance in Common Summit this September helped to discover the existence of the Development Bank of St. Kitts & Nevis. Finally, based on the bank ownership database from Fitch Connect compiled by Professor Ugo Panizza^[1][2], we compared all the institutions classified as “development banks” with the PDBs and DFIs currently covered by our database and identified more institutions that could be contained in our database, including Caisse de Garantie du Logement Locatif Social, Qazaqstan Investment Corporation JSC, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited, and Caisse des Prêts et de Soutien des Collectivités Locales.

To further verify the potential inclusions and exclusions and ensure the reliability of the global PDBs and DFIs list, we implemented three rounds of quality control. In the first round of quality control, our research specialists conducted thorough investigations and documented detailed supporting evidence by strictly applying operational indicators of the following five qualification criteria:

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.

In the second round of quality control, a peer senior researcher rigorously reviewed the supporting evidence to ensure the accuracy of the identification for each included or excluded institution. In the final round of quality control, (co-) principal investigators from the INSE, AFD, and FERDI team provided the ultimate verification of the updates on the PDBs and DFIs database.

Find the list of newly added PDBs and DFIs in 2023 Q4 below:

No.	Code	PDB and DFI Name	Country
1	BR19691	State Development Bank of Espírito Santo	Brazil
2	MA19491	TAMWILCOM	Morocco
3	KN19811	Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis	Saint Kitts and Nevis
4	FR19861	Caisse de Garantie du Logement Locatif Social	France
5	KZ20071	Qazaqstan Investment Corporation JSC	Kazakhstan
6	IN19871	Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited	India
7	TN19021	Caisse des Prêts et de Soutien des Collectivités   Locales	Tunisia

Forthcoming Steps:

Looking forward, the Institute of New Structural Economics (INSE), French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement, AFD), and Foundation for Studies and Research on International Development (Fondation pour les Études et Recherches sur le Développement International, FERDI) 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 plan to collect and release the total assets data for PDBs and DFIs for the fiscal year 2022.

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.

References:

[1]    Panizza, Ugo (2023): Bank ownership around the world, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies Working Paper, No. HEIDWP07-2023, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.

[2]    For the access to the Bank Ownership Data, please visit https://www.upanizza.com/general-4.