Covid-19: development banks have deployed a significant anti-crisis strike force

Public development banks have been on the front line in the face of the Covid-19 crisis.

Last year, they deployed a strike force of $ 2.5 trillion: an amount up 13% from 2019 which represents 12% of global investment, according to data released Wednesday in the second edition of the “Common Finance” summit, organized in Rome.

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“The public banking community has played its countercyclical role.

Where private investment has declined, we have increased our flows, ”

says Rémy Rioux, Director General of the French Development Agency.

Support for SMEs, housing and agriculture

AFD contributed to the launch, last year, of this unprecedented alliance which lists 530 institutions in the world, weighing nearly 19,000 billion in assets.

More than two-thirds are national banks, including the largest, the China Development Bank at the head, in 2019, of 2.4 trillion in assets.

21% of institutions are located at the regional level such as the African Development Bank or the European Investment Bank (EIB) and 9% at the multilateral level with the World Bank.

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An important component, last year, focused on support for SMEs, quotes Rémy Rioux, mentioning the action of Bpifrance, KfW in Germany or Bancoldex in Colombia, which increased its commitments by 30%, via reductions on the credits.

Emphasis was also placed on housing and agriculture.

Thus, the National Agricultural Development Bank (BNDA) of Mali has refinanced a year of very low cotton production.

The objective of the Rome summit is to reflect on long-term issues via some fifteen thematic coalitions on water, biodiversity, food security or the climate.