European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is an investment firm and development agency based in London. EBRD offers financial services throughout the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean, Central and Eastern Europe, and into Central Asia.Services include loans, equity, trading, business advising, consultancy, project development and more. EBRD is focused on financial investment projects, and provides backing to banks, industries, and businesses as well as investing in new ventures. Their focus sectors are climate finance, agribusiness, infrastructure, and transport. In addition to this, EBRD is active in the political sector and works with governments and business leaders on policy reform. EBRD is active in legal reform and refuge crisis response and has been very involved in the efforts to transform and recover the Chernobyl nuclear accident site.

EBRD was created to rebuild and reform the economy of the countries they are working with, as well as the global economy; they maintain a mandate to only work with companies "committed to and applying the principles of multi-party democracy [and] pluralism". EBRD has been working towards investments in sustainability and climate finance since its founding. They have also been committed to gender equality and other social reform topics. Of course, as a development and reconstruction bank they have also been active in crisis response. During 2020-2021, the bank directed all of its efforts and funding to countering the economic impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic.

The Board of Governors at EBRD has overall authority within the organization. The board includes representatives from its many shareholders. The bank is owned by seventy-one countries, as well as the European Union and the European Investment Bank, and is actively working with around forty countries. Odile Renaud-Basso is the current president of EBRD and a member of the executive committee. Soha El-Turky is the vice president and CFO. Policies and strategies are determined by the board of directors and advisors.

The idea for a European development bank first arose as a response to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, and was suggested by the president of France, François Mitterrand, in 1989. The European bank for Reconstruction and Development was established in April 15, 1991 when its first headquarters were opened in London. The objective of the EBRD was to help establish free-market economies in European countries, through investment and policy reform.

30 years of EBRD- a history