AIIB – non-sovereign
- Score:
- 37.1
- Position:
- 9 / 22 (Non-sovereign)
Overview
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank with a mission to improve social and economic outcomes in Asia and beyond. It began operations in 2016. The non-sovereign portfolio of the AIIB provides financing for infrastructural projects in the private sector.
Analysis
Overall, AIIB’s non-sovereign portfolio ranked 9th out of 22 assessed, with a score of 37.1 out of 100. This reflects a modest improvement from its 2023 score of 30.6, while maintaining the same ranked position. The most improvement since 2023 was in the Impact Management component, where AIIB gained new points on aligned impact standards and disclosure of results indicators. AIIB discloses relatively large amounts of data, although much of that disclosure is in PDF format. As such, AIIB fails to score points for publishing in more accessible formats including through bulk download and to the IATI Standard. AIIB did relatively well in the ESG and Accountability to Communities component but not as well for the other four components.
In the Core Information component, AIIB ranked 15th, with a score of 9.19 out of 30. A slight decline in score from 2023, combined with improvements by other institutions, led to a drop from its previous 9th place position. AIIB scored on 15 of the 18 indicators in this component but dropped points due to not publishing projects to IATI or having a bulk download file. Improvements included more consistent disclosure on sub-national location and disclosure on disbursement. AIIB continued to not score any points on domicile, total investment cost, funding source, disclosure date and signature date.
AIIB’s non-sovereign portfolio ranked joint 14th in the Impact Management component with a score of 7.25 out of 30. This marks an improvement from its position as 17th in 2023. Notable improvements included new indication of aligned impact standards and new disclosure of results indicators at the project-level. AIIB continued to fail on publishing an impact measurement approach, disclosing its additionality and attribution methodologies, additionality statements and results.
AIIB performed relatively well in the ESG and Accountability to Communities component, ranking 3rd with a score of 17.67 out of 30, maintaining the same ranking as in 2023. It scored on all organisational-level indicators, nearly achieving 100 per cent, and was one of only five non-sovereign DFIs to have an IAM community disclosure policy. At the project level, it scored for disclosing summaries of E&S risks, stating what E&S documentation was produced, and improved from 2023 by disclosing if disclosure to project-affected people was required. However, inconsistent disclosure of the details of assurance of community disclosure (when required) limited AIIB’s score.
In the Financial Information component, AIIB came joint 3rd lowest, scoring 1.75 out of 10 and moving down from its position as 11th in 2023. Its performance in this component remained unchanged across all indicators, except for points gained from the new climate finance methodology indicator.
AIIB’s non-sovereign portfolio ranked joint 8th in the Financial Intermediary (FI) Sub-Investment component, with a score of 1.25 out of 10; in 2023 it came last in this component. The only improvement from 2023 was that AIIB began disclosing use of funds at the project level.
Recommendations
- AIIB should review its disclosure policy according to current best practice.
- It should make investment data available in a bulk download format.
- It should become an IATI publisher and disclose all investments to the IATI Standard.
- It should disclose further Core Information data including domicile, sub-sector, funding source, and signature date. It should consistently disclose total investment cost and disclosure date.
- AIIB should publish its approach to measuring impact management and determining both additionality and impact attribution. It should also disclose the evaluations it conducts.
- At the project level, AIIB should identify the additionality of investments and disclose baseline, target and actual data for identified impact indicators. It should consistently disclose metrics, definitions and/or methodologies for the impact indicators.
- In its E&S policy, AIIB should specify when documents should be translated and in which language.
- At the project level, it should consistently identify E&S standards triggered and disclose E&S project plans/assessments.
- It should consistently disclose information on assurance of community disclosure (including place, method, documentation provided, and language) when required.
- AIIB should consistently disclose community disclosure of the PGM and IAM, as well as publishing beneficial ownership statements and client shareholders.
- For Financial Information indicators it should start disclosing repeat investment, concessionality, mobilisation and equity share. It should ensure currency of investment, co-financing and loan tenor information is consistently disclosed across all investments.
- AIIB should disclose whether investments include climate finance, amounts split by mitigation and adaptation, as well as a rationale for why climate finance has been counted.
- AIIB should create a policy for the disclosure of FI sub-investments in line with Publish What You Fund’s DFI Transparency Tool and define use of funds (banks) at the policy level.