NIB part of Sixth MDBs and Credit Rating Agencies Roundtable

During the IMF and World Bank Group Annual Meetings, senior financial and risk leaders from multilateral development banks (MDBs) and other development finance institutions met with the three major credit rating agencies on 15 October 2025. The dialogue was on capital adequacy reforms, risk data enhancements, and rating criteria updates—key steps aimed at strengthening MDBs’ financial resilience and expanding lending capacity.

Building on a strong foundation of collaboration, these ongoing engagements play a vital role in enhancing mutual understanding and ensuring that credit rating methodologies accurately reflect the distinctive financial and risk-management frameworks of MDBs.

The discussion focused on three key areas:

• Implementation of Capital Adequacy Framework (CAF) Recommendations: MDBs provided updates on progress made in implementing the G20-sponsored Independent Review of MDBs’ Capital Adequacy Frameworks, including recent reforms to optimize capital efficiency while maintaining financial strength. The steps taken so far have resulted in close to $700 billion in additional lending capacity over the next ten years.

• Enhancements to the Global Emerging Markets Risk Database Consortium (GEMs): Participants reviewed the publication of new datasets and strengthened governance arrangements within GEMs, which support data-driven insights into MDBs’ strong credit performance.

• Criteria Enhancements for Risk Transfer Instruments: MDBs and CRAs explored suggestions for refining rating criteria to better capture the credit risk mitigation benefits of risk transfer instruments.

The roundtable also featured a discussion with Standard & Poor’s on their recent update to the Multilateral Lending Institutions (MLI) criteria, released earlier this week. The update includes significant enhancements aligned with prior roundtable discussions. MDBs welcomed the opportunity to engage with S&P on the positive implications of the revisions and acknowledged the progress made.

CRAs expressed appreciation for the continued structured engagement, while MDBs emphasized the importance of rating methodologies that reflect MDBs’ robust risk management frameworks and continue to evolve.

This meeting marked the second session held in 2025 and the sixth overall since the dialogue was launched in 2023.T

The next roundtable is expected to take place in April 2026.

NIB is an international financial institution owned by eight member countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. The Bank finances private and public projects in and outside the member countries. NIB has the highest possible credit rating, AAA/Aaa, with the leading rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s.

For further information, please contact

Kim Skov Jensen, CFO, Head of Treasury & Finance,+358 10 618 0209, kim.jensen@nib.int

Jacob Kooter Laading, CRO, Head of Risk & Compliance, +358 10 618 0281, jacob.laading@nib.int