Financial model

The IBRD finances its activities from the shares its members hold, as well as borrowing on international capital markets by issuing World Bank bonds. The Bank raised US$54.0 billion worth of capital in fiscal 2019 from bonds issued in 27 different currencies.

Since 1959, the IBRD, which is backed by world governments has had a triple-A credit rating since 1959, which allows it to borrow capital at lower rates.

According to a 2015 article, commissioned by the Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four on International Monetary Affairs and Development—also known as the Group of 24 (G-24)—multilateral development banks (MDBs)—such as the IBRD—"represent one of the most successful types of international organization created in the post-World War II era." By October 2015, although the WBG—with its lending arms—was the only "global institution,:1 there were more than twenty operational 20 MDBs in the world. In 2016, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and BRICs New Development Bank began operations. Like other multilateral development banks, (MDBs), the IBRD has a preferred credit treatment (PCT), through which borrowers grant the MDBs a "privileged position to be first in line for repayment, should a country face financial restrictions.":5

The bank also generates income from the return on its equity and from the small margins on the loans. As the IBRD does not seek profit, it transfers part of its excess income to the IDA ($259 million in fiscal 2019).

In 2011, the IBRD loaned about US$26 billion, which represented just a "fraction of the $72 billion the IMF approved as a credit line to a single nation, Mexico." In the early 2010s, the total of "capital investments in emerging markets from all sources have topped $1 trillion annually". According to the Institute of International Finance, in 2011, the "combined net investment of the World Bank and other international development banks and agencies" was about $20 billion in 2011.

According to a 2019 The Economist article, the IBRD is "more controversial" than the International Development Association (IDA) lending arm. With its AAA credit rating, the IBRD can "borrow money cheaply on the international financial markets". Middle-income countries, like Brazil and China that currently borrow from the IBRD, could "borrow in abundance from foreign investors" on their own.