Last week, the World Bank’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Bertrand Badré was in the Netherlands for a roadshow covering banks and institutional investors. Accompanied by Frank Heemskerk, the Netherlands Executive Director, he visited potential creditors in the Netherlands. Part of the mission was to look for the financial firepower of Dutch pension funds that can possibly be leveraged by the World Bank Group.

‘We present to ABP and PGGM what we do’, Badré says. ‘Banking is not about making money, but about dealing with future risks. Infrastructure, for instance, is an investment category for institutional investors. We are well-placed to finance infrastructure in developing countries and can leverage investment from institutional investors. Banks are cautious. So we have to turn to pension funds, but also the BlackRocks and AXAs of this world. They don’t come to us, so we go to them.’

According to Badré, the World Bank leverages funds in places where development aid does not usually pass through. As a broker between stakeholders, but also on a purely financial level: ‘You can’t be a strong development organization if you’re not a strong financial partner, if you’re not managed appropriately. That adds to our credibility vis-à-vis our clients.

The World provides $66 billion worth of loans on an annual basis and counts over 16.000 employees, split between Washington and 145 country offices. Besides public-private partnerships and cost efficiency, knowledge is key to safeguarding the Bank’s future, Badré claims. ‘The World Bank is an interesting mix of capital and knowledge. I call it two-K. We have thousands of experts in the field of water, organization, etcetera. One goal of our reform process is to make this expertise more widely available. For instance, if we do something fantastic in Brazil, we need to replicate that in Africa, and vice versa.’

The full article about the visit can be found in the Dutch financial paper, het Financieel Dagblad. It is in Dutch only and requires log-on information: http://fd.nl/economie-politiek/1090747/de-wereldbank-moet-pensioenfondsen-binnenhalen