The International Investment Bank has now relocated its headquarters to Budapest, becoming the first and only multilateral development bank with Headquarters in the CEE region.
IIB Chairperson Nikolay Kosov said the bank’s focus will be on providing financial support for sustainable and green initiatives both in Hungary and in the region and on the strengthening of economic ties between its member states.
The bank comprises nine member states. Five of those are EU and NATO members – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary – and they hold more than a 50 percent share in the bank. Russia’s share stands at 47 percent. The bank is governed by the board, which is a made up of representatives from each of the member states, each member having one vote.
Hungary holds the third largest stake in the bank after Bulgaria and Russia. Hungary acquired a 12.78 percent stake in 2016 after renewing its membership in 2014.
As an international development bank, the bank offers domestic companies access to the international market, and further strengthens Hungary's role as a financial center. The total value of the funds provided thus far by the IIB to Hungarian companies is close to 100 million EUR.
Prior to this decision to relocate, there were five, major international development banks based in the European Union, none of them in Central Europe. Since 2017, IIB has seen a number of upgrades and now, according to the credit rating consensus, it falls into an A3/A classification.
Photo credit: kormany.hu