IFI governance

News

World Bank’s trust fund annual report shows slight decline in number of funds

8 April 2013

The Bank published its 2012 annual report for trust funds end January. Overall the report reveals relatively little change in the group trust funds which totaled $29.2 billion compared to $29.1 billion in 2011. A 2011 evaluation by the Independent Evaluation Group heavily criticised the proliferation of trust funds and recommended the phase-out of some types of these instruments (see Update 77), however Bank management hid behind “political economy issues driving the creation of trust funds” to reject the recommendations.

Financial Intermediary Funds (FIFs) continued to account for the largest share (61 per cent), followed by IBRD/IDA trust funds (33 per cent), and IFC trust funds (3 per cent). Although the dollar value remained largely unchanged, the number of active trust fund accounts decreased in FY12, from 1,072 to 1,064. This fall reflects a continued decline in the number of IBRD/IDA trust funds from 748 to 720. IFC trust funds continued to increase (from 273 to 290) and the number of FIFs increased only marginally (from 51 to 54).