The Asian Development Bank is launching a massive restructuring to shake off the image of a stuffy financial institution disconnected from the countries it serves — a move that Managing Director General Woochong Um tells Devex he hopes will make the anti-poverty lender more akin to a “family doctor.”
The idea of a huge multinational lender with more than $130 billion in outstanding loans to clients positioning itself as the financial equivalent of your trusted local physician will probably raise some eyebrows. But in an interview, Um says it’s an apt analogy.
“What we mean by a family doctor is a doctor who really understands the patient,” says Um, one of the bank’s most senior leaders.