World Bank’s Banga says exploring longer, cheaper loans as mission expands to climate

MARRAKECH: World Bank president Ajay Banga on Friday laid out an ambitious agenda aimed at widening the development lender’s mission to tackle climate change and other global crises, speeding decision-making and offering more - and cheaper - lending resources.

In his first major address since taking office on June 2, the former MasterCard CEO said that balance sheet steps in process would yield $157 billion in new lending capacity over a decade, and the World Bank would explore loan maturities of 35-40 years for social and human capital investments.

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“We’re investigating if we can reduce interest rates to incentivize exiting from coal as part of energy transitions,” Banga said.