A decade of innovation has created new ways for multilateral development banks to transfer risk and connect development-finance assets with institutional investors. But mobilisation volumes alone do not tell us whether these innovations are improving development finance.
In this ODI Global insight, co-authored with Herman Bril and Hans Peter Lankes, we ask what happens after assets are distributed: where risk ultimately sits, how MDBs use the capacity they release, whether investor preferences reshape origination, and what happens under stress. We also examine what determines whether development-finance assets can fit institutional portfolios at scale.