The four institutions: why they exist, who owns them and what each does

When and why they were created

The oldest is the Bank for International Settlements, founded in 1930 and based in Basel, Switzerland. Its mission is to support central banks' pursuit of monetary and financial stability through international cooperation, and to act as a bank for central banks.

Two were conceived in July 1944 at the Bretton Woods conference, attended by 44 countries: the International Monetary Fund, and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the first part of what is now the World Bank Group. The bank's initial aim was to help rebuild war-torn European countries and to support developing economies.

The Asian Development Bank is a regional institution. It opened its doors in December 1966 and is headquartered in Metro Manila, the Philippines. It describes its vision as a prosperous, inclusive, resilient and sustainable Asia and the Pacific.

Who owns them

Each institution has members, who decide how it is run.

• The IMF has 191 member countries. Their quotas, which reflect each member's economic size and position, are its main source of funding. A 25-member Executive Board, led by the Managing Director, conducts its business.
• The World Bank Group has 189 member countries, represented by a Board of Governors, according to the World Bank Library.
• The Asian Development Bank has 69 members: 50 in Asia and the Pacific and 19 from outside the region.
• The BIS is owned by 63 central banks, which together account for about 95 percent of world GDP.

The BIS is different from the other three: its owners are central banks, and so are its customers.

What each one does

• The IMF has three core roles: policy advice, based on monitoring its members' economic and financial developments; financial assistance, lending to members to restore stability in a crisis; and capacity development, through technical assistance and training.
• The World Bank, made up of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association, provides financing, policy advice and technical help to the governments of developing countries. The first lends to middle-income and creditworthy poorer countries; the second focuses on the poorest.
• The rest of the World Bank Group, the International Finance Corporation, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, supports private enterprises in developing countries, including financial institutions, through financing, technical assistance, political risk insurance and dispute settlement.
• The Asian Development Bank provides loans, technical assistance, grants and equity investments.
• The BIS offers central banks a forum for dialogue, policy analysis and financial services, and hosts committees that set standards and pursue financial stability through what is called the Basel Process, among them the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures.

Whom they lend to

As the roles above show, their counterparties are countries, governments, central banks and enterprises. The IMF lends to its member countries, the World Bank to governments, and the BIS provides financial services to central banks. The International Finance Corporation, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes support private enterprises, including financial institutions, and the Asian Development Bank also makes equity investments.

For lenders in Southeast Asia, these institutions also matter through three other things: the advice they give to governments and central banks, the international standards developed in the committees hosted by the BIS, and the reports and statistics they publish for many countries.

A worked example: which institution for which question

An illustrative lender is considering a new market in the region. Its first questions map onto the four institutions as follows.

• Is the economy stable, and what are the risks to it? The IMF's policy advice rests on its monitoring of each member's economic and financial developments.
• How many adults have an account, borrow or save? The World Bank's Global Findex Database 2025 draws on nationally representative surveys of about 148,000 adults in 141 economies on their use of formal and informal financial services.
• Who could support a financial institution there? The International Finance Corporation, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes support private enterprises, including financial institutions, and the Asian Development Bank also makes equity investments.
• Which international standards stand behind the local banking and payment rules? The committees hosted by the BIS, such as the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures.

How each standard becomes a local rule differs by market; the rules comparison shows what applies in each.