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Home/DFI Index/DFI Transparency Index 2025/NDB – non-sovereign
DFI

DFI Transparency Index 2025

NDB – non-sovereign

Score:
20.2
Position:
21 / 22 (Non-sovereign)

Overview

The New Development Bank (NDB), formerly referred to as the BRICS Development Bank, is a multilateral development bank established in 2014 by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) with the purpose of supporting sovereign and non-sovereign projects among the five emerging markets through loans, guarantees, equity participation and other financial instruments. The New Development Bank is a new addition to the 2025 DFI Transparency Index.

Analysis

NDB’s non-sovereign portfolio ranked second-last out of 22 institutions assessed with a score of 20.2 out of 100. NDB’s overall performance was negatively affected due to not publishing to the IATI Standard and not having a bulk download file; all project-level points scored by NDB reflected disclosures on its project webpages.

In the Core Information component, NDB ranked 19th with a score of 7.10 out of 30. The points it scored at the organisational level were for having a disclosure policy, publishing detailed disaggregated data and publishing an annual report. At the project level, NDB did not score for unique identifier, domicile, sub-sector, investment instrument, disbursement, funding source, disclosure date and last update date.

NDB ranked third-last in the Impact Management component with a score of 5.50 out of 20. While it published its approach to impact attribution, evaluations, and aligned standards, it failed to publish an impact measurement approach, additionality approach and sector/country strategies. NDB failed all project-level impact indicators, including activity indicators/metrics and results.

In the ESG and Accountability to Communities component, NDB came second-last with a score of 5.50 out of 30. It scored 50 per cent for E&S global disclosure policy and 75 per cent for E&S community disclosure policy. However, NDB does not have an Independent Accountability Mechanism (IAM) so did not score for indicators related to that. It also did not have a policy on community disclosure for client-based project-level grievance mechanisms (PGMs). NDB did not pass for any project-level indicators including summary of E&S risks, E&S project plans/assessments and assurance of community disclosure.

In the Financial Information component, NDB came 15th of 22 institutions assessed with a score of 2.08 out of 15. It scored some points for publishing its financial statements, climate finance methodology and basic co-financing data. It failed to score any points on repeat investment, currency of investment, concessionality, mobilisation, instrument-specific disclosure and project-level climate finance indicators.

Finally, in the Financial Intermediary Sub-Investments component, NDB came joint last with a score of 0 out of 10. It failed to disclose any policy on disclosing sub-investments, and did not disclose any sub-investment or define use of funds.

Core Information 7.1 / 20
Impact Management 5.5 / 25
ESG & Accountability to Communities 5.5 / 30
Financial Information 2.08 / 15
Financial Intermediary Sub-investments 0 / 10

Recommendations

  • NDB should review its disclosure policy according to current best practice.
  • It should make investment data available in a bulk download format.
  • NDB should become an IATI publisher and disclose all investments to the IATI Standard.
  • It should disclose further Core Information data including unique identifier, domicile, sub-sector, disbursement, funding source, disclosure date and last update date. It should consistently disclose investment instrument.
  • NDB should publish its approaches to measuring impact and determining additionality, as well as its sector/country strategies.
  • It should disclose project-level Impact Management indicators, including additionality statement, activity indicators/metrics and results.
  • NDB 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 independent accountability mechanism (IAM), following best practice examples and incorporate disclosure requirements for an IAM into existing policies.
  • NDB should develop a free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) policy.
  • NDB should disclose project-level ESG and Accountability to Communities indicators, including summary of E&S risks and E&S documentation.
  • It should provide assurance of community disclosure for investments when disclosure is required. It should also disclose beneficial ownership statements and consistently identify the main shareholders of the client company.
  • For Financial Information indicators it should disclose for repeat investment, identity of and amount provided by co-financers, concessionality, mobilisation and instrument-specific details. It should consistently disclose currency of investment.
  • NDB 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.
  • NDB should create a policy for the disclosure of FI sub-investments in line with Publish What You Fund’s DFI Transparency Tool.
Core Information 7.1 / 20
Impact Management 5.5 / 25
ESG & Accountability to Communities 5.5 / 30
Financial Information 2.08 / 15
Financial Intermediary Sub-investments 0 / 10

Deep Dive

Core Information

7.1 / 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 / 0.75
Does the DFI's portal allow free, bulk export of data?0 / 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?0.25 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose a unique identifier for the project?0 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the current status of the activity?0.5 / 1
Does the DFI disclose a description of the activity?0.25 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the objectives, rationales, and expected outcomes of the activity?0.25 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the country the activity takes place in?0.25 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the sub-national location the activity takes place in?0.25 / 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?0.5 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the sector of the activity?0.25 / 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 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the total investment cost?0.08 / 0.33
Does the DFI disclose the DFI commitment for the investment?0.17 / 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?0.25 / 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?0.38 / 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?0.5 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the date of activity disclosure?0 / 0.25
Does the DFI disclose the approval date of the activity?0.13 / 0.25
Does the DFI disclose the signature date of the activity?0.06 / 0.25
Does the DFI disclose the last update date of the project data?0 / 0.25

Impact Management

5.5 / 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?1.25 / 1.25
Does the DFI explain its approach to determining additionality? (non-sovereign only)0 / 1.25
Does the DFI explain its approach to determining impact attribution?1.25 / 1.25
Does the DFI publish sector or (multi-)country strategies?0 / 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?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

5.5 / 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?0 / 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?0 / 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

2.08 / 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?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?0 / 1
Does the DFI disclose whether investment has co-financers or guarantors?0.33 / 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

0 / 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?0 / 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?0 / 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?0 / 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