Non Regional Countries
Memberships & Authorities
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The IDB is owned by 47 member countries: 26 borrowing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and 21 non-borrowing countries, including 16 European countries, the United States, Canada, Japan, Israel and the Republic of Korea. The Bank's highest authority is the Board of Governors, which meets once a year to discuss major policy issues. Europe and Israel have been the sites of several annual meetings: Madrid 1981, Vienna 1985, Amsterdam 1989, Hamburg 1993, Jerusalem 1995, Barcelona 1997, Paris 1999 and Milan 2003. The Governors delegate many of their powers to the 14-member Board of Executive Directors, which conducts Bank operations, decides operational policies, sets interest rates for loans, authorizes borrowings and approves loans. Three Executive Directors represent groups of countries that comprise European member state.

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Each country's voting power on both boards is based on its subscription to the Bank's ordinary capital: Latin American and Caribbean states, over 50 percent; the United States, 30 percent; European countries and Israel, 11 percent; Japan and Korea, 5 percent; Canada, 4 percent. The Bank's charter ensures the position of majority shareholders for the borrowing member countries as a group. Traditionally, the Bank's President is from a Latin American country and the Executive Vice-President is from the United States. Several Europeans and Israeli occupy managerial positions at the IDB, whose staff is recruited from all member countries.