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Home/DFI Index/DFI Transparency Index 2025/BII (United Kingdom)
DFI

DFI Transparency Index 2025

BII (United Kingdom)

Score:
45.7
Position:
5 / 22 (Non-sovereign)

Overview

British International Investment (BII) is the development finance institution of the United Kingdom. It was established in 1948 as the Colonial Development Corporation (CDC) and renamed the Commonwealth Development Corporation in 1963. In 2021, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), renamed it British International Investment, with the FCDO as its lone shareholder. BII joined the Association of bilateral European Development Finance Institutions (EDFI) in 1992.

Analysis

Overall, BII ranked 5th of the 22 non-sovereign institutions assessed with a score of 45.7 out of 100. This is a significant improvement from its position at 12th in 2023 when it scored 26.5. All components showed improvements, though the Impact Management component saw only a small gain. BII made a bulk download file of investment data available and publishes investments to the IATI Standard.

In the Core Information component, BII ranked 3rd with a score of 15.46 out of 20, improving from its position as 11th in 2023. It scored for sixteen out of the seventeen indicators, only failing to score for funding source. BII scored well for format of publication on many indicators because a bulk download was available containing much information and it published investments to the IATI Standard. Improvements included uploading the annual report and country locations to IATI, as well as new disclosures on unique identifiers, sub-sectors, client contacts, environmental and social (E&S) risk categories, and progress dates. It lost points for not disclosing the funding source for the sample. BII continued to fall short on disclosing total investment cost, disbursement, approval date, and sub-national location.

BII came joint 5th in the Impact Management component with a score of 11.75 out of 25, maintaining the same position as in 2023. It continued to perform well on organisation-level indicators, except there was no longer an explanation on its approach to measuring impact attribution. It improved by publishing sector strategies to IATI. Its project-level performance remained unchanged between 2023 and 2025. While it scored for providing additionality statements, it continued to fall short on disclosing activity indicators, metrics, and results.

In the ESG and Accountability to Communities component, BII ranked joint 14th with a score of 8.5 out of 30. This marks a slight improvement from 2023 when BII ranked joint second-last for this component. Organisational-level improvements included a new explanation of E&S risk categorisation. However, BII continued to not score for any project-level indicators in this component, failing to provide adequate summaries of E&S risks and failing to disclose any E&S documentation for investments.

BII came 4th in the Financial Information component, with 6.2 points out of 10. This marks a significant improvement from 2023 when it came joint-last. In 2023, it only scored for the financial reports and statements indicator. In 2025, however, BII also scored for repeat investment, currency of investment and, importantly, for nearly all of the new climate finance indicators, missing points only for the climate finance rationale.

In the Financial Intermediary Sub-Investments component, BII ranked joint 2nd with a score of 3.75 out of 10, maintaining the same position as in 2023. Its performance across all indicators in this component stayed the same as in 2023; it was one of five non-sovereign institutions to disclose private equity fund sub-investments and one of eight to have a policy for disclosing qualifying sub-investments.

Core Information 15.46 / 20
Impact Management 11.75 / 25
ESG & Accountability to Communities 8.5 / 30
Financial Information 6.2 / 15
Financial Intermediary Sub-investments 3.75 / 10

Recommendations

  • BII should review its disclosure policy according to current best practice.
  • BII should improve its IATI publication by publishing objectives and rationales, investment instrument, name of client and client contact to IATI.
  • It should disclose further Core Information data including sub-national location, disbursement, total investment cost, approval date, and funding source.
  • BII should explain its approach to measuring impact attribution.
  • It should start disclosing further project-level impact indicators, including activity metrics/indicators and results data.
  • BII should develop an early disclosure policy covering, at a minimum, high-risk projects and disclose investments in line with the policy.
  • It should create an IAM, following best practice examples and incorporate disclosure requirements for an IAM into existing policies.
  • It should disclose project-level ESG and Accountability to Communities indicators, including summary of E&S risks, E&S documentation, assurance of community disclosure, and beneficial ownership.
  • For Financial Information, BII should start disclosing repeat investment, co-financing data, concessionality, mobilisation, and instrument-specific disclosure. It should also include a rationale for why climate finance was counted.
  • BII should define use of funds (banks) at the organisational level and begin disclosing bank sub-investments.
Core Information 15.46 / 20
Impact Management 11.75 / 25
ESG & Accountability to Communities 8.5 / 30
Financial Information 6.2 / 15
Financial Intermediary Sub-investments 3.75 / 10

Deep Dive

Core Information

15.46 / 20
About component

The basic information that describes a DFI’s organisational policies and investments. This type of information is typically found in key organisation documents and represents the first tier of project information, typically disclosed on project web pages or in files available for bulk download. At the organisation level this includes access to information policies and annual reports. At the project level, this includes project titles, locations, and key dates.

Does the development finance institution (DFI) have a disclosure or access to information policy?0.75 / 0.75
Does the policy include a presumption of disclosure?0 / 0.75
Does the policy have limitations of commercially sensitive information and sensitive internal deliberations information?0 / 0.75
Does the policy have an independent appeals process?0.75 / 0.75
Does the DFI's portal allow free, bulk export of data?0.67 / 0.67
Does it contain detailed disaggregated data?0.67 / 0.67
Is the data published under an open licence?0.67 / 0.67
Does the DFI disclose an annual report?1 / 1
Does the DFI disclose a project title?0.5 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose a unique identifier for the project?0.5 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the current status of the activity?1 / 1
Does the DFI disclose a description of the activity?0.5 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the objectives, rationales, and expected outcomes of the activity?0.38 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the country the activity takes place in?0.5 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the sub-national location the activity takes place in?0 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the domicile of the investee?1 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the activity as sovereign or non-sovereign? Or; Does the DFI disclose the activity as public sector or private sector?1 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the sector of the activity?0.5 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the sub-sector of the activity?0.5 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the investment instrument of an activity?0.75 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the total investment cost?0 / 0.33
Does the DFI disclose the DFI commitment for the investment?0.33 / 0.33
Does the DFI disclose the disbursement for the investment?0 / 0.33
Does the DFI disclose the source of funding for the investment?0 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the name of the client?0.38 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose a description of the client? (non-sovereign only)0.5 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose a relevant DFI contact?0.5 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose a relevant client contact?0.38 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the environmental and social (E&S) risk category of the activity?1 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the date of activity disclosure?0.25 / 0.25
Does the DFI disclose the approval date of the activity?0 / 0.25
Does the DFI disclose the signature date of the activity?0.25 / 0.25
Does the DFI disclose the last update date of the project data?0.25 / 0.25

Impact Management

11.75 / 25
About component

The ways in which a DFI predicts, measures, and evaluates the impacts of their investments. At the organisation level, this includes an impact measurement approach. At the project level, this includes activity indicators/metrics and results.

Does the DFI publish a methodology explaining its approach to impact measurement?1.25 / 1.25
Does the DFI indicate which standards/initiatives it is aligned to?1.25 / 1.25
Does the DFI explain its approach to determining additionality? (non-sovereign only)1.25 / 1.25
Does the DFI explain its approach to determining impact attribution?0 / 1.25
Does the DFI publish sector or (multi-)country strategies?3 / 3
Does the DFI have a policy on the evaluation of investments?1.5 / 1.5
Does the DFI disclose the evaluations that it conducts?1.5 / 1.5
Does the DFI identify the development additionality of its investment? Or; Does the DFI identify the financial additionality of its investment?2 / 2
Does the DFI disclose results indicators for the activity?0 / 3
Does the DFI disclose metrics, definitions and/or methodologies for the indicators?0 / 3
Does the DFI disclose baseline data for identified indicators?0 / 2
Does the DFI disclose a target value for the indicators?0 / 2
Does the DFI disclose an actual/current value for the indicators?0 / 2

ESG & Accountability to Communities

8.5 / 30
About component

The ways in which a DFI predicts, mitigates, and communicates the ESG aspects of their activities. At the organisation level this includes E&S global disclosure policy and E&S community disclosure policy. At the project level this includes E&S plans and assessments, and assurance of community disclosure.

Does the DFI have a policy on early disclosure of investments?0 / 0.83
Does the DFI clearly articulate what E&S documentation will be disclosed for medium and high-risk projects?0 / 0.83
Does the DFI disclose the E&S policies/standards it applies (e.g. IFC Performance Standards or in-house policies) for its investments?0.83 / 0.83
Does the DFI have a policy that specifies when a document should be translated and in which language?0 / 0.83
Does the DFI disclose an explanation of project risk categorisation?0.83 / 0.83
Does the DFI disclose a list of investment exemptions?0.83 / 0.83
Does the DFI have a community disclosure policy?1 / 1
Does the policy require early disclosure to project-affected people?1 / 1
Does the DFI clearly articulate what E&S documentation will be disclosed to project-affected people for investments?1 / 1
Does the DFI have a free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) policy?1 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the availability of the Independent Accountability Mechanism (IAM) on its website?0 / 1
Does the DFI IAM have a publicly available registry that publishes results, responses, or findings?0 / 1
Does the DFI require clients to disclose the availability of the IAM to project-affected people where appropriate? Or; Does the DFI state that it will disclose the availability of IAM to project-affected people?0 / 2
Does the DFI require clients to disclose the availability of the project-level grievance mechanism (PGM) to project-affected people where appropriate? Or; Does the DFI state that it will disclose the availability of the PGM to project-affected people?2 / 2
Does the DFI disclose a summary of E&S risks for an activity?0 / 1
Are E&S standards triggered by the project identified?0 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the minimum E&S documentation for the risk categorisation?0 / 1.33
Does the DFI disclose what E&S documentation was produced for the activity?0 / 1.33
Does the DFI disclose all identified E&S documents that were produced for the activity?0 / 1.33
Does the DFI state if disclosure of the activity to projected-affected people was required?0 / 0.75
If yes, then: Does the DFI state the date of community E&S disclosure?0 / 0.75
Does the DFI state the place of community E&S disclosure?0 / 0.75
Does the DFI state the method of community disclosure?0 / 0.75
Does the DFI state what documentation was disclosed?0 / 0.75
Does the DFI identify the language of disclosure to project-affected people?0 / 0.75
Does the DFI state if the presence of a project grievance mechanism was disclosed and the method it was disclosed?0 / 0.75
Does the DFI state if the presence of an independent accountability mechanism was disclosed and the method it was disclosed?0 / 0.75
Does the DFI identify the main shareholders of the client company?0 / 1
Does the DFI disclose a beneficial ownership statement?0 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the presence of the IAM on the DFI project page?0 / 1

Financial Information

6.2 / 15
About component

This information provides details on the financial performance of DFIs and the structuring of investments. At the organisation level, this includes audited financial reports. At the project level, this includes currency of investment, mobilisation, and concessionality

Does the DFI disclose audited financial reports/statements?1 / 1
Does the DFI publish a methodology explaining its approach to calculating climate finance?1 / 1
Does the DFI disclose whether an investment is a repeat investment?0 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the currency that the investment is made in?1 / 1
Does the DFI disclose whether investment has co-financers or guarantors?0 / 0.33
If there are co-financers, does the DFI disclose the identity of the co-financers?0 / 0.33
And, does the DFI disclose the amount of financing provided by each co-financer?0 / 0.33
Does the DFI disclose how much of the DFI investment amount was concessional?0 / 1
Does the DFI disclose why concessional finance was necessary?0 / 1
Does the DFI disclose how much private finance was mobilised?0 / 3
Equity - Share of equity: does the DFI disclose what percentage of the client company was purchased through the investment?0 / 0.5
Debt - Loan tenor: does the DFI disclose what is the length of the loan?0 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose whether an investment includes climate finance?0.8 / 0.8
If the investment includes climate finance: Does the DFI disclose whether it is mitigation and/or adaptation climate finance?0.8 / 0.8
Does the DFI disclose the amount of climate finance for the investment?0.8 / 0.8
Does the DFI disclose the amount of mitigation and/or adaptation finance for the investment?0.8 / 0.8
Does the DFI disclose a rationale for why climate finance has been counted?0 / 0.8

Financial Intermediary Sub-investments

3.75 / 10
About component

This information relates to the ways in which investments in FIs are used. At the organisation level, this includes FI sub-investment policy. At the project level, this includes private equity fund sub-investments and FI (bank) sub-investments.

Does the DFI have a policy for disclosing qualifying sub-investments?1.25 / 1.25
Is the DFI policy for disclosing qualifying sub-investments in line, or more comprehensive, than the DFI Transparency Tool?0 / 1.25
Does the DFI define use of funds for FIs (banks) at organisational level?0 / 1.25
Does the DFI disclose private equity fund sub investments?1.25 / 1.25
Does the DFI disclose private equity fund sub-investments satisfying the DFI Transparency Tool?0 / 1.25
Does the DFI disclose use of funds for FIs (banks) at project level?1.25 / 1.25
Does the DFI disclose FI (banks) qualifying sub-investments according to their policy?0 / 1.25
Does the DFI disclose FI (banks) sub-investments in line with the DFI Transparency Tool?0 / 1.25