In early March, 45 CSOs including Thailand-based Focus on the Global South and US-based Center for International Environmental Law, wrote to World Bank president Jim Yong Kim complaining that the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC, the World Bank’s private sector arm) response to an audit of its lending to the financial sector (see Update 84) “fail[ed] to acknowledge the gravity of the findings and [was] notable for its lack of commitment to addressing them”. They argued that “the IFC should fundamentally rethink the nature, purpose and modalities of IFC investment in the financial sector” and demanded that it “develop a new strategy for investments in this sector” including “a process for independent input, participatory consultation with affected communities, and broader stakeholder engagement.” The IFC held a staff-level consultation with CSOs in mid March in Washington DC and will hold another during the spring meetings in April.