The second edition of the DFI Transparency Index was launched in June 2025. The results are here.

The DFI Transparency Index is a comparative measure of the transparency of the world’s leading Development Finance Institutions (DFIs). It assesses sovereign (public sector) and non-sovereign (private sector) operations of multilateral and bilateral institutions, based on a robust methodology.

DFIs have been growing in scale and significance, and they play a crucial role in economic development. In a context of mounting global crises and shrinking aid budgets, it is vital that DFIs use their resources in the most effective and impactful way possible. Greater transparency facilitates smarter investment decisions that build markets, drive development and strengthen accountability.

Publish What You Fund launched the DFI Transparency Index in 2023 to assess current levels of transparency and to encourage and guide improvements. The first edition acts as a baseline from which future progress can be assessed.

Key findings of the 2025 DFI Transparency Index

Since the inaugural Index of 2023, transparency levels have improved almost across the board. While most DFIs have made real strides in data quality, accessibility, and harmonisation, critical gaps remain — especially in climate finance, impact, private capital mobilisation and assurance of community disclosure.

Top performers and trends

• World Bank ranks #1 for sovereign portfolio transparency, followed by Asian Development Bank and African Development Bank.
• For non-sovereign portfolios, Asian Development Bank leads, followed by International Finance Corporation and African Development Bank.
• British International Investment is the top bilateral non-sovereign DFI.
• The only DFI that did not improve its 2023 score is US International Development Finance Corporation.

Shareholders, senior leaders, technical and policy staff helped to drive big improvements in transparency at Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), World Bank, British International Investment and Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets.

Levels of transparency for private capital mobilisation (PCM) data remain low. However, the 2025 Index reveals a breakthrough:

• IDB Invest is the first DFI to pass our PCM transparency test.
• CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean has started publishing PCM data after retroactively obtaining client consent.

This shows that transparency is possible.

For the first time, the 2025 Index assessed how DFIs report their climate finance. We found that all sovereign DFIs — and most non-sovereign ones — now disclose how they define and count climate finance. But when it comes to project-level transparency, the picture gets murkier. Just over half of sovereign DFIs and just over a quarter of non-sovereign DFIs published granular, project-level data. That means in many cases, it’s simply not possible to tell which investments count as climate finance — or how much.

The DFI Transparency Index is based on three years of research and collaboration. Our DFI Transparency Initiative highlighted that while DFIs have taken meaningful steps to improve their transparency, there was still a great deal more that needed to be done. We recognised the need for innovations that would encourage DFIs to further improve their transparency and to provide them with guidance. So, we launched the DFI Transparency Tool to provide granular guidance on the types of information that DFI stakeholders value and should therefore be disclosed. We used the Tool as the basis for analysis for the DFI Transparency Index.