Consensus on development bank reform a gain at G20 meet: Govt

The government counted consensus around the need to reform multilateral development banks (MDBs) as one of the gains from the meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, but added that there will be greater clarity on capital infusion once the full roadmap for reforms was ready around October.

A report by the independent expert group co-chaired by former US treasury secretary Larry Summers and 15th Finance Commission chairman N K Singh has called for widening the mandate to deal with global public goods, such as climate change, increasing the resources for poor and developing countries by innovative financing measures, tapping into private pool of capital and increasing the equity base by up to $100 billion. Singh told the FMs that the report had sought to “establish more definite linkages between mandate, finance, operating model, and congruency of the MDB system”.