The future of the US International Development Finance Corporation

Expanding its portfolio, top-level due diligence, and collaboration — those are the issues that the world’s biggest bilateral development finance institution is focused on as it heads toward a reauthorization next year. “In the short four years that we've been in existence, we've moved the needle quite a bit … Right now our total exposure globally is nearly $44 billion of a $60 billion cap that [the U.S.] Congress gave us,” said Nisha Biswal, deputy CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, or DFC, in a Devex Pro virtual event. DFC opened its doors in January 2020 — replacing the United States’ former DFI, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation — and needs to be reauthorized next year. “It’s an opportunity for us to really [present] the development finance corporation of the future,” said Biswal. “What does a state of the art development finance institution for the United States look like? And what [does] the next iteration of the BUILD Act [which established DFC] look like that allows us to get there?” she asked. Part of the answer is a simple question of money. While DFC currently has a maximum contingent liability of $60 billion, it wants that raised to $100 billion. “The demand is out there,” said Biswal. “And I think we can move the financing to meet that demand if we have the running room to do that.” But Biswal also wants to be able to unleash the full power of some of DFC’s tools, such as equity investments; think innovatively about how to apply them; and increase the number of countries that DFC works in. Collaborations — with other DFIs around the world, as well as with other U.S. government agencies — are also part of the equation when it comes to increasing its impact. And while making it easier and faster for organizations to access development finance is important, there can be no compromise when it comes to due diligence, said Biswal. “We want to have high transparency, high standard financing, that is advancing our values, and the norms that we think should be industry-wide norms for how financing is done,” she said. Watch the full event below to get an insight into Biswal’s thinking on the future of development finance broadly, and the future of DFC specifically.