World Bank names CEOs to help bring private funds to climate, development finance

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The World Bank on Monday named 15 chief executive officers including financiers and asset managers to a group launched by the lender’s president, Ajay Banga, aiming to marshal more private capital to combat climate change and boost investment in developing countries.

The “Private Sector Investment Lab” will begin work in the coming weeks, initially focusing on expanding financing for the transition to renewable energy and associated infrastructure, the bank said in a statement released at a climate meeting in Britain attended by U.S. President Joe Biden and King Charles.

Banga announced the initiative at a global finance summit in Paris last month alongside Mark Carney, the U.N. special envoy on climate action, and Shriti Vadera, chair of Prudential Plc. Monday’s announcement identified other participants.

The World Bank and the CEOs will work “to develop, test, implement and ultimately scale financing structures that can most effectively mobilize private capital,” Carney said in a statement.

The other CEOs are: Thomas Buberl of AXA; Larry Fink of BlackRock (NYSE:); Noel Quinn of HSBC; Shemara Wikramanayake of Macquarie; Hironori Kamezawa of Mitsubishi UFJ (NYSE:) Financial Group; Hendrik du Toit of Ninety One; Jessica Tan of Ping An Group; Feike Sijbesma of Royal Philips; Sim Tshabalala of Standard Bank; Bill Winters of Standard Chartered (OTC:); Damilola Ogunbiyi of Sustainable Energy for All; Natarajan Chandrasekaran of Tata Sons; Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara of Temasek; and Mark Gallogly of Three Cairns Group.

“Results won’t come overnight, but if successful, this group has the potential to unlock significant investment that will deliver jobs and better quality of life for people living throughout the Global South – the surest way to drive a nail into the coffin of poverty,” Banga said.

Banga, the former Mastercard (NYSE:) CEO who took office in June, is working to boost the World Bank’s lending resources to expand its work beyond traditional development projects to tackle climate change, pandemics and other global challenges.

He said in a statement that the Private Investment Lab CEOs were a “crucial piece of the puzzle” to devise ways to pull more private sector investment into the intertwined challenges of poverty, climate and fragility.