International Day of Banks Date in the current year: December 4, 2024

The eradication of poverty in all its forms and dimensions is one of the most important sustainable development goals, which the UN plans to achieve by 2030. Since development banks play a crucial role in financing sustainable development and battling poverty, the General Assembly found it necessary to celebrate their contribution to the achievement of sustainable development goals with a special international day.

A development bank, also known as a development finance institution or a development finance company, is a financial institution providing risk capital for economic and social development products on non-commercial basis. Such banks provide funds for the implementation of important social projects that are unable to get funds from commercial lenders.

As a rule, development banks are established and owned by international organizations (for example, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development is an organization of the World Bank Group, which, in turn, is a specialized agency of the United Nations), charitable institutions or governments. Government establish and support development banks both to address national economic, political, social and environmental issues and to help other countries. Development banks are typically backed by developed countries to help countries with developing economies.

The types of development banks include community development banks, international financial institutions, national development banks, and multilateral development banks. Multilateral development banks are created by a group of countries to promote social and economic development in a particular region; they include, for example, the Asian Development Bank and the African Development Bank.

In addition to development banks, the International Day of Banks celebrates the national banking systems of UN member states, highlighting their contribution to the improvement of the standard of living.

Events dedicated to the International Day of Banks are coordinated by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), the UN Development Program (UNDP), the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and other relevant UN organizations. The main goal of such events is to raise awareness of the most pressing issues the world economy has to face and to consolidate the efforts of international development banks and governments to find solutions.

One of these issues is the projected slowdown in global economic growth. According to experts, global growth is likely to have reached its peak, so there is a possibility that it will slow down in the nearest future; this will lead to worsening poverty, inequality and vulnerabilities, especially in developing countries. To prevent such a situation, it is necessary to join forces to eliminate weaknesses in the global financial system, reform the global financial architecture, and strengthen the global financial safety net.