Ajay Banga

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday nominated business executive Ajay Banga to become president of the World Bank, lauding his experience forging ...

The move comes as the US increases pressure on the bank to put more emphasis on tackling climate change. Mr Banga led credit card giant Mastercard for more than ...

"There is a lot riding on this next phase of the World Bank's strategy," Ms Glassman said. While there is general consensus that the bank needs to evolve, "there is less agreement on how, and there's a worry about the balancing act that needs to be done," she added. It said female nominees were strongly encouraged.

US president puts forward choice to oversee new focus on climate crisis after resignation of Trump appointee David Malpass.

“Ajay is uniquely equipped to lead the World Bank at this critical moment in history. Anti-poverty groups are expected to question Banga’s commitment to fighting the climate crisis using private sector funds. He is known to have lost the confidence of Biden’s head of the US Treasury, Janet Yellen, who with other shareholders wanted to expand the bank’s development remit to include the climate crisis and other global challenges. He said it would allow the World Bank to “mobilise capital to power the green transition”. John Kerry, Biden’s climate envoy, said Banga was “the right choice to take on the responsibilities of the World Bank at this critical moment”. The World Bank said the first criterion for a future president was “a proven track record of leadership and accomplishment, particularly in development”.

MasterCard President and CEO Ajay Banga speaks at the US-Africa Business Forum in Washington, Aug. 5, 2014. Drew Angerer | Bloomberg | Getty Images. U.S. ...

For a job of this stature, we need more than a tap on the shoulder from President Biden." "Ajay is uniquely equipped to lead the World Bank at this critical moment in history," Biden said in a statement. They all do vastly more to exacerbate inequality than to fight it," he said in a statement. "The World Bank is not a U.S. Banga's nomination is the first to be made public, but the bank will accept nominations from other member countries through March 29. Scott Morris, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and a former U.S.

Ajay Banga will be a transformative World Bank President as the institution works to deliver on its core development goals and address pressing global ...

Ajay has brought great insight, energy, and persistence to the challenges of promoting economic development and tackling the root causes of migration. Since I was elected Vice President, Ajay and I have worked closely together on a new model of public-private partnership designed to address the root causes of migration in Northern Central America. Ajay Banga will be a transformative World Bank President as the institution works to deliver on its core development goals and address pressing global challenges, including climate change.

News comes days after Trump appointee David Malpass announced plans to step down in June from his role leading the 189-nation poverty reduction agency.

The United States has traditionally picked the World Bank chief. Addressing the impacts of climate change at the multilateral bank is a priority for the U.S. He is the first Indian-born nominee to the World Bank president role.

India-born Banga has close ties to emerging markets, useful to the Bank which wants to help them on pressing problems.

For a job of this stature, we need more than a tap on the shoulder from President Biden.” Banga, born into a Sikh family in India, is vice chairman of General Atlantic, a US private equity firm that administration officials said has invested more than $800m in electric car charging solutions, solar power and sustainable farming. “Ajay is uniquely equipped to lead the World Bank at this critical moment in history,” Biden said in a statement. “They all do vastly more to exacerbate inequality than to fight it.” Banga’s nomination is the first to be made public, but the bank will accept nominations from other member countries through March 29. Asked about Washington’s decision not to nominate a woman, the official said Banga had “a personal conviction and excellent track record promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in the work that he does” and would bring that view to the bank.

In a tweet, Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, IMF said, "Happy to hear that Ajay Banga, who I have known for many yrs, has been nominated as a ...

He is a past member of the US President's Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. He is honorary chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce, serving as chairman from 2020-2022. In a separate tweet, Mastercard congratulated Banga saying: "His impact on our business and in advancing inclusive growth across the globe is well documented. [Michael Miebach](/topic/michael-miebach)said: "He's a mentor, friend and first-rate leader who has worked tirelessly to bring hundreds of millions of people around the world into the digital economy. Previously, he was President and CEO of Mastercard, leading the company through a strategic, technological and cultural transformation. [Titan](/topic/titan)Capital, said this would be another phenomenal addition to the list of Indian origin leaders at the helm of globally impactful organisations. He is also chairman of Exor and independent director at Temasek. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2016. He became an advisor to General Atlantic's climate-focused fund, BeyondNetZero, at its inception in 2021. he said in a tweet. Sharing a photo with Banga, Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, IMF tweeted, "Happy to hear that Ajay Banga, who I have known for many yrs, has been nominated as a candidate to lead World Bank. His exec leadership skills & drive for innovation are well known.

Biden believes Banga has the right skill set to tackle challenges like climate change and poverty.

[had been calling for Malpass’s resignation](https://www.wsj.com/articles/world-banks-david-malpass-says-he-is-not-resigning-amid-criticism-of-his-climate-views-11663947377) since September last year, after he refrained from publicly acknowledging that burning fossil fuels is warming the planet. [stepping down on June 30](https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2023/02/15/world-bank-group-president-malpass-announces-intention-to-step-down) earlier this month. “Ajay is uniquely equipped to lead the World Bank at this critical moment in history. Quotable: Biden believes Ajay Banga can tackle climate change and poverty as World Bank president Raised in India, Ajay has a unique perspective on the opportunities and challenges facing developing countries and how the World Bank can deliver on its ambitious agenda to reduce poverty and expand prosperity.” — He has spent more than three decades building and managing successful, global companies that create jobs and bring investment to developing economies, and guiding organizations through periods of fundamental change. Less than a year on, he’ll be named president and CEO. The current leader, former president Donald Trump’s pick Malpass, said he’d be In its 77-year history, the US Banga was born in Pune, in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, on Nov. The bank’s board said on Wednesday (Feb. No other contenders seem to be in the race yet.

Homi Kharas discusses the nomination of Ajay Banga as the World Bank president and reviews the challenges and priorities ahead for the institution.

He will also be well-versed in the art of persuading finance ministers and other government officials in developing countries to open sensitive sectors to the private sector, a skill he will need if the vested interests in state-owned utilities and other government monopolies are to be overcome. Ceding ownership means losing control and exposing an institution to risks that derive from the actions of its partners. Banga’s job will partly be to encourage donors to provide more aid, and partly to make the case that existing aid can be more effectively used when channeled through multilateral funds, such as those provided by the World Bank. Long-standing calls for the multilaterals to improve efficiency and effectiveness by An added complication: Aid is now needed for many middle-income countries—those suffering loss and damage from climate-related natural disasters, those being encouraged to act in the global interest (for example, coal decommissioning, pandemic surveillance, and nature preservation and conservation), and those where a small amount of grants can catalyze action, like funds needed for project preparation and for legal and financial technical advice on specialized topics and for staffing new platforms. [advance equitable and sustainable economic growth and financial inclusion around the world](https://www.mastercardcenter.org/about-us#our-mission).” The core ideas of equity and sustainability resonate with the discussion today about a new development narrative—the “ [global growth story of the 21st century](https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/publication/the-global-growth-story-of-the-21st-century/)” as Professor Nick Stern and colleagues have called it. The founding World Bank agency—the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)—has successfully used leverage to finance its operations. The co-benefits to rich countries of faster and more sustainable development in developing countries are clear—less conflict and fragility, more trade, biodiversity protection, participation in pandemic surveillance, and of course, climate mitigation and disaster risk reduction. The politics come into even sharper focus when negotiating with governments on contributions to the International Development Association, the concessional lending arm of the World Bank, and other World Bank-managed trust funds, including the Climate Investment Funds. Its shareholders have encouraged it to scale up lending significantly, but opinion is divided as to how much can be done based on existing capital, and how much new capital will be required. Ajay Banga will need all his experience as CEO of Mastercard, a large financial services firm, to find the right balance; partly a technical challenge and partly a political challenge of persuading IBRD’s national government shareholders that he is able to deliver more to all clients—LICs, LMICs, and UMICs—without jeopardizing the financial health of the institution and without changing any one group by paying more attention to the other. One of the most urgent tasks facing the new president is to navigate complex financial waters.

Why it matters: Reading between the lines, the nomination of Banga underscores what Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has called an "urgent" need for profound ...

In order to meet that goal, Banga will need to corral private-sector money — and his decades at Citigroup, Mastercard, and General Atlantic will come in very handy. If he does succeed in implementing radical reforms at the Bank, he will do so where many others before him have failed. - Its financing activities will move away from direct loans to member sovereigns. Such a model will always underinvest in addressing global challenges," views change at the Bank. That model is insufficient to meet the moment.

The US will put forward Ajay Banga, the former chief executive of Mastercard, as its candidate for president of the World Bank Group.

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The Indian-American businessman is likely to become the bank's next president, as the US traditionally chooses who leads the institution.

The bank has been led by 13 men and no women. Currently, a country’s needs are based just on how poor it is. The public banks lead for the E3G campaign group Sonia Dunlop welcomed the nomination. [will push](https://climatechangenews.com/2023/02/23/india-set-to-push-for-green-world-bank-reforms-at-g20/) at the G20 this week for the bank to give cheaper climate finance to developing countries than developed ones. The World Bank has become a key focus of efforts to tackle global climate change. Germany’s world bank governor Svenja Schulze tweeted this week “it is definitely time for a woman to lead the World Bank”.

He has a climate background — in the background. Banga's not a prominent figure in global warming circles, but he boosted climate initiatives at Mastercard.

- They argue his private sector resume is fit for the goal of transforming the bank, a big ship to turn. - But others praised the choice. [analysis](https://www.iea.org/commentaries/the-world-s-top-1-of-emitters-produce-over-1000-times-more-co2-than-the-bottom-1) shows. [said](https://twitter.com/ClimateEnvoy/status/1628777005410918402). [roadmap](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23565612-wbg-evolution-roadmap-paper-december-18-2022)" to make climate central to its mission. [choice to head the World Bank](https://www.axios.com/2023/02/23/biden-picks-ajay-banga-lead-world-bank) — is poised to transform its climate work, but his resume is something of a Rorschach test on this claim.

President Biden will nominate Ajay Banga, former president and CEO of Mastercard, to serve as president of the World Bank, the White House announced today.

It also wants to give the developing world more access to basic banking and lending services. The U.S. He currently is vice chairman at General Atlantic, a private equity firm. “He’s a get-it-done kind of leader.” - “As a renowned executive, Mr. Malpass later apologized and clarified his remarks.

If he effectively leverages his skills and expertise, Banga's leadership could mean transformational reform at the World Bank, which is an urgent necessity ...

Neglecting to do so will result in the numbers of impoverished people worldwide not diminishing, but escalating dramatically, as the impacts of climate change continue to take hold. [the Bridgetown Initiative](https://www.forbes.com/sites/globalcitizen/2023/02/19/the-urgent-need-for-a-new-world-bank-leader-dedicated-to-climate-action-and-eradicating-poverty/?sh=30fc43972322) that outlines clear measures for deploying, at speed, urgent financing that is already available – but currently lying dormant – for the poorest countries and those most vulnerable to climate change who are likely to be pushed into deeper levels of poverty without support. But we know that even a fully replenished IDA wouldn’t be enough to address the needs of the poorest and highly-indebted countries. Such financing can and must be as diverse as the countries seeking support, from grants to market-rate financing. These countries have significant economies, but are also home to around 70 percent of the global population living in poverty. However, the consequences of climate change are expected to worsen over time, and if we wait to fully understand the scope of its impact, it will be too late to take effective and sufficient action. Longer term, Banga needs to also advocate for more structural solutions to bring in additional grants (The Bridgetown Initiative does include an often overlooked solution for this: taxing fossil fuels). The impacts of climate change will eventually exacerbate existing health inequalities and threats that are already causing widespread damage to ecosystems, infrastructure, and economies, pushing entire nations deeper into debt and distress. Although contemporary economists acknowledge the interdependence of poverty eradication and climate action, and understand that they must be addressed together, in recent months some individuals have attempted to drive a wedge between the development and climate communities. The notion that poverty eradication and climate change are mutually exclusive is a perspective that’s over two decades out of date. To this end, it is crucial that any climate action agenda takes into account the developmental requirements of the world's impoverished populations, especially those experiencing energy poverty, and vice-versa. This is a prime opportunity for change that must be seized without delay, and some leading voices are hopeful that Banga will rise to the occasion.