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Home/DFI Index/DFI Transparency Index 2025/DFC (United States)
DFI

DFI Transparency Index 2025

DFC (United States)

Score:
34.2
Position:
=11 / 22 (Non-sovereign)

Overview

The United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is the development bank of the United States. DFC is an agency of the United States federal government and was established in 2019 following the merging of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) with the Development Credit Authority (DCA) of United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Analysis

DFC ranked joint 11th overall with a score of 34.2 out of 100, moving down in rankings from its position as 6th in 2023 when it scored 38.2. DFC was the only institution out of all 30 institutions assessed both in 2023 and 2025 to decrease in overall score. We could not find any DFC projects from the sample on the IATI Registry, therefore it did not score for the IATI format of publication. While DFC’s score dropped overall, it continued to perform relatively well in the Financial Intermediary Sub-Investments component.

DFC came 13th for Core Information, scoring 10.96 out of 20 and dropping from 8th position in 2023. It scored for sixteen of the seventeen indicators. An improvement included publishing a disclosure policy. However, inconsistent reporting on objectives and total investment cost meant it failed to meet the two survey criteria it had passed in 2023.

In the Impact Management component, DFC performed poorly and ranked second-last with a score of 2.75 out of 25 and dropping from its position as 12th in 2023. While it passed for some of the same organisation-level indicators in 2023, it lost points this time due to no longer publishing its impact measurement approach, aligned standards and evaluation policy. DFC continued not to score for any project-level indicators, including additionality statements, activity indicators/metrics and results.

DFC came joint 7th in the ESG and Accountability to Communities component, scoring 15 out of 30 and dropping from its position as 4th in 2023. It continued to score 100 per cent for organisation-level indicators in this component. However, it failed all project-level indicators in this component, including summary of E&S risks, E&S documentation and assurance of community disclosure. In 2023, it passed the summary of E&S risks indicator but did not this time because of inconsistent disclosure.

In the Financial Information component, DFC came joint third-last, scoring 1.75 out of 15. It only scored for financial reports and currency of investment, losing the points it gained in 2023 for loan tenor disclosure due to inconsistent reporting. It also did not score for the new climate finance indicators.

Finally, DFC performed relatively well compared with other components in the Financial Intermediary Sub-Investments component, ranking joint 2nd with a score of 3.75. It improved since 2023 by disclosing its policy on sub-investment disclosure. It continued to be one of five non-sovereign DFIs to score for disclosing private equity fund sub-investments. It also scored for the FI (bank) use of funds indicator.

Core Information 10.96 / 20
Impact Management 2.75 / 25
ESG & Accountability to Communities 15 / 30
Financial Information 1.75 / 15
Financial Intermediary Sub-investments 3.75 / 10

Recommendations

  • DFC should review its disclosure policy in line with industry best practices and the DFI Transparency Tool.
  • DFC should publish all projects to the IATI Standard or ensure that these projects are published by the federal government of the United States.
  • DFC should disclose further Core Information data including sub-sector, disbursement, client contact, disclosure date, approval date and signature date. It should consistently disclose activity objectives, sub-national location, domicile, total investment cost, and client description.
  • DFC should re-publish its impact measurement approach and indicate which impact standards/initiatives it is aligned to. It should also publish its approach to determining impact attribution, sector/country strategies and re-publish its policy on the evaluation of investments.
  • It should disclose project-level Impact Management indicators, including additionality statement, activity indicators/metrics, and results.
  • DFC should consistently disclose project-level ESG and Accountability to Communities indicators, including summaries of E&S risks, E&S project plans/assessments, and assurance of community disclosure. It should also begin disclosing beneficial ownership statements, identify main client shareholders, and indicate the presence of the IAM on project pages.
  • For Financial Information, it should disclose whether investments are repeat investments, publish detailed co-financing data, and disclose concessionality, mobilisation, and share of equity. It should consistently disclose loan tenor.
  • DFC should publish its climate finance methodology and begin disclosing project-level climate finance data including the amounts split by mitigation and adaptation and climate finance rationales.
  • It should define use of funds for FIs (banks) at the organisational level and disclose bank sub-investments in line with Publish What You Fund’s DFI Transparency Tool.
Core Information 10.96 / 20
Impact Management 2.75 / 25
ESG & Accountability to Communities 15 / 30
Financial Information 1.75 / 15
Financial Intermediary Sub-investments 3.75 / 10

Deep Dive

Core Information

10.96 / 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 / 0.67
Does the DFI disclose an annual report?0.75 / 1
Does the DFI disclose a project title?0.38 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose a unique identifier for the project?0.38 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the current status of the activity?0.75 / 1
Does the DFI disclose a description of the activity?0.13 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the objectives, rationales, and expected outcomes of the activity?0 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the country the activity takes place in?0.38 / 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?0 / 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?0.38 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the sub-sector of the activity?0 / 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?0.25 / 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?1 / 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 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose a relevant DFI contact?0.38 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose a relevant client contact?0 / 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 / 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 / 0.25
Does the DFI disclose the last update date of the project data?0.25 / 0.25

Impact Management

2.75 / 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?0 / 1.25
Does the DFI indicate which standards/initiatives it is aligned to?0 / 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?0 / 3
Does the DFI have a policy on the evaluation of investments?0 / 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?0 / 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

15 / 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?0.83 / 0.83
Does the DFI clearly articulate what E&S documentation will be disclosed for medium and high-risk projects?0.83 / 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?0.83 / 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?1 / 1
Does the DFI IAM have a publicly available registry that publishes results, responses, or findings?1 / 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?2 / 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

1.75 / 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?0.75 / 1
Does the DFI publish a methodology explaining its approach to calculating climate finance?0 / 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 / 0.8
If the investment includes climate finance: Does the DFI disclose whether it is mitigation and/or adaptation climate finance?0 / 0.8
Does the DFI disclose the amount of climate finance for the investment?0 / 0.8
Does the DFI disclose the amount of mitigation and/or adaptation finance for the investment?0 / 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