European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Overview

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD; French: Banque européenne pour la reconstruction et le développement or BERD), is an international financial institution founded in 1991 in Paris. As a multilateral developmental investment bank, the EBRD uses investment as a tool to build market economies. Initially focused on the countries of the former Eastern Bloc, it expanded to support development in more than 30 countries from Central Europe to Central Asia. Similar to other multilateral development banks, the EBRD has members from all over the world (North America, Africa, Asia and Australia, see below), with the biggest single shareholder being the United States, but only lends regionally in its countries of operations. The EBRD is owned by 77 countries, the European Union and the European Investment Bank. Despite its public sector shareholders, it invests in private enterprises, together with commercial partners. The EBRD is not to be confused with the European Investment Bank (EIB), which is owned by EU member states and is used to support EU policy. EBRD is also distinct from the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB).

History of the EBRD

The bank was founded by Jacques Attali and attracted to the City of London by a special grant of £40 million from HM Treasury under Norman Lamont, who was appointed to the bank's board of governors. The EBRD was intended at its beginning to focus on the switch from centrally planned economy to market based economy in the Central and Eastern European countries by investing in the private sector, mainly banks, industries and businesses, and by promoting policies that would favor them. It was created as a result of the end of the Cold War because of particular issues regarding the international system in place, the historical and political context at the time. Furthermore, its recipient countries had to ensure that they would work towards "multi-party democracy and political pluralism" in which was considered as one of the main particularity of the EBRD distinguishing the latter from other financial institutions. Firstly, notably advocated by European political actors such as the French President Mitterrand in 1989, the idea of creating this financial institution involving the European countries started before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The reception of this proposition was mitigated depending on the country, for instance it received hostility from the British whereas the French were important proponents of the project and influenced the process. In January 1990, negotiations about the EBRD objectives, its lending policy regarding the public and private sectors, started and involved all the EU countries at the time, as well as various other European countries, non-European countries and representatives from the EU and the European Investment Bank. The Soviet Union was represented by its own delegation in the process and thus participated in the negotiations as well as the USA. Later on, because of dissensions on the political and economic objectives of the institution, the inclusion of the Soviet Union was threatened. Considered as short negotiations, the agreement (for reasons relating to the situation in Eastern Europe and to a wave of privatization across Europe) leading to its creation was signed on 29 May 1990 by actors such as 40 states as well as two European organizations and by March 1991 took its first effects as the bank was inaugurated. The creation of the EBRD has led to the financing of various projects in the years following its first operations, for instance there were twenty projects in 1992 in which the EBRD provided financing worth ECU 2.1 billion.

Governance

Divided between its headquarters located in London, and field offices located elsewhere, the European Bank for reconstruction and development is made of a three-tier structure composed of firstly, the president and the staff, secondly the Board of Governors and finally the Board of Directors. The bank’s structure has changed over time, because of concerns about competition within the institution. In fact, in the beginning of the 90s, there were two different banking divisions (on one side, the merchant banking related to the private sector and on the other side the development banking side working mostly with the public sector). Consequently, the two divisions came to be merged into a single one, substituting this structure with another one instead dividing the bank with seven policy and country regional sub-divisions.

Board of Governors

Representatives from each member state compose this board, they have authority power. Currently (2024-2025) Slovenia is the Chair of Board of Governors, while Iceland and Turkey are the Vice Chairs.

Board of Directors

The Board of Directors consists of 23 members elected by the Board of Governors. These members can not be on the Board of Governors. Its function is to direct the general operations of the bank, notably:

Approve the budget; In accordance with the Board of Governors, establishing policies and making other decisions, loans, investments; Prepare the work of the Board of Governors; Submit yearly for approval the audited accounts to the Board of Governors.

President

The EBRD is composed of many members with voting powers, from European and non-European states to the membership of other institutions such as the European Investment Bank, however depending on the geographical location of each member, voting rights differ. More precisely, European and other creditor members hold a majority voting power. At its beginning, the EBRD was owned by more than 40 members, in 2015 the number of countries owning it was 61. and as of September 2026, there were 75 countries as owners. The following presidents have served the EBRD to date (as of September 2026).

Jacques Attali: April 1991 – June 1993 Jacques de Larosière: September 1993 – January 1998 Horst Köhler: September 1998 – April 2000 Jean Lemierre: July 2000 – July 2008 Thomas Mirow: July 2008 – July 2012 Suma Chakrabarti: July 2012 – July 2020 Odile Renaud-Basso: 2020 – present

Membership

To become a member of the bank, a country needs to fit the EBRD's Articles of Agreement. These Articles stipulate that a country can only become a Member State if it is a state in Europe or a non-European member of the IMF. Institutions like the European Union and the EIB also participate in the bank operations. Since its foundation the EBRD has almost doubled in membership size. The latest accessions to the bank are countries located in Africa.

Public banking

The EBRD is a public bank, meaning that public institutions such as states are shareholders in those institutions. More precisely, public financial institutions are controlled major predominantly by public authorities (more than 50%) whereas in institutions with public participations, public authorities aren't majority shareholders. Public banks were particularly involved in the economic transition of the former Soviet Republics and Central and Eastern European countries as private banks and other sources of financing didn't want to invest for reasons such as those countries’ macroeconomic difficulties as well as political reasons regarding the country’s stability for instance.

Relationship with the EIB

In the context of the EU’s investment banking, the EBRD and the EIB have been involved in a rivalry regarding the status of the “EU’s premier development bank”. Major criticism about the EBRD in this situation is related to the fact that non-EU countries are also important shareholders whereas the EIB is completely owned by the EU. More recently, another source of rivalry was about becoming the new “European Climate and Sustainable Development Bank (ECSDB).

Public banks and the COVID-19 pandemic

More recently, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, public banks have had their influence and role increased as they have become important actors of the economic recovery response. As for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, it has committed €21 billion between 2020 and 2021 of activities. More precisely, its own package was established within the scope of the Resilience Framework, the Trade Facilitation Programme and the Vital Infrastructure Support Programme etc. In 2020 alone, it has invested €11 billion as part of 411 projects which corresponds to a 10% raison compared to 2019. 72% of its investments were received by the private sector. Moreover, because of this specific context, the EBRD focused some of its operations in sectors other than green investment meaning that it only focused 29% of its investment in this domain (compared to 46% in 2019).

Donors

According to the EBRD 2020 Sustainability Report, donors provided €589 million to support EBRD activities, taking the form of grants, loans and risk-mitigating instruments. The EBRD funds come mainly from bilateral donors, from the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), the European Union (EU), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

Financial operations

According to the EBRD, the bank provides different direct financial instruments such as loans, equity investments and guarantees. It also works on the assistance of SMEs through the intermediary of other banks or investment and venture capital funds which are linked to the EBRD’s investments.