The Banking Executive Issue - October 2025 Issue

2025 IMF–World Bank Meetings MR. AJAY BANGA, PRESIDENT, THE WORLD BANK Mr. Ajay Banga’s plenary speech was perhaps the most forward-looking in- tervention of the week. He began by reflecting on “recent events in Syria and Gaza” as reasons to hope that peace is possible, but stressed that development institutions must both prepare for peace and prevent future conflict. Reconstruction, he argued, is not just about bricks and mortar but about institutions and jobs. Mr. Banga then reframed the Bank’s mission around employment. By 2050, over 85% of the world’s pop- ulation will live in countries consid- ered “developing” today, and four young people will enter the global workforce every second over the next decade. Without a jobs-rich growth model, that demographic wave could translate into instability and migration pressures with global repercussions. He highlighted reform progress in- side the Bank—shorter project cy- cles, a unified corporate scorecard, and a USD 100 billion boost in fi- nancial capacity—before spelling out a three-pillar strategy: build human and physical infrastructure; improve policy and institutional frameworks in tandem with the IMF; and scale private investment through IFC and MIGA, including new guar- antee and originate-to-distribute structures that have already securi- tized portfolios of IFC loans. For Arab delegations, his emphasis on energy access (including gas and nuclear alongside renewables), agri- culture transformation and climate- resilient infrastructure resonated strongly with domestic investment agendas. H.E. MOHAMMED AL-JADAAN, MINISTER OF FINANCE FOR SAUDI ARABIA, AND CHAIR OF THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY AND FINANCIAL COMMITTEE (IMFC) In his role as chair of the IMF’s steer- ing committee, Saudi Finance Minis- ter H.E. Mohammed Al-Jadaan emerged as a central voice from the Global South. At an IMFC press brief- ing, he underscored the urgency of tackling global debt and warned that political shifts and protectionism were amplifying uncertainty for emerging markets. He also stressed the importance of maintaining the IMF as a quota-based institution with adequate resources that reflect the weight of emerging and developing economies. ISSUE 202 OCTOBER 2025 the BANKING EXECUTIVE 47