IDB's big shots carve out a deal

"The Inter-American Development Bank works like General Motors or any other corporation. It reflects its shareholder structure," explains a career manager at the bank who has been with the institution long enough to witness every kind of manoeuvre. "The bank's biggest shareholder is the US [30.531% of voting power] followed by the major Latin countries Brazil and Argentina [10.85% each], Mexico [6.975%] and Venezuela [5.814%]. These countries call the shots and things happen when they either agree or disagree."

Only in this light is it possible to understand how the bank procrastinates over issues for years, then suddenly springs into life and takes decisive action in weeks.

Such a metamorphosis took place last November and December. An agreement was finally reached on concessional lending, which had been a bone of contention for years. A decision was also taken on providing emergency lending for macroeconomic support, which...