In capital markets, credit ratings play a central role in shaping investor demand, capital allocation, and issuers' funding costs. The upgrade of IDB Invest’s rating from AA+ to AAA by S&P Global Ratings reflects the strength of our institution’s fundamentals: an expanding capital base, consistent delivery and evolution of its mandate, and a strong record of effective governance and risk management. Fitch Ratings has also maintained a AAA rating for IDB Invest since February 2012, highlighting the institution's long-standing financial discipline and resilience.  

The recent recognition strengthens our ability to finance and mobilize capital for private sector projects that drive development and growth in Latin America and the Caribbean.

S&P: Key Factors Behind IDB Invest's AAA Rating

S&P’s decision reflects several core strengths of the institution, including:

• The successful scaling of its “originate-to-share" model
• Completion of a $3.5 billion capital increase by its shareholders
• A strong track record in risk management  

• Robust portfolio management practices

   

These elements are complemented by record activity in 2025, reaching $13.1 billion, including $7.7 billion in mobilization, a 53% year-over-year increase. IDB Invest offers the private sector a range of financial products, including loans, equity, and guarantees, and through its originate-to-share model structures and mobilizes capital with banks, investors, and asset managers to support projects that deliver both development outcomes and financial returns.

Driving New Business Opportunities and Impact in the Region

Looking ahead, IDB Invest plans to expand its annual financing and mobilization capacity from approximately $13 billion to around $22 billion over the next decade.

The AAA rating further strengthens the institution's ability to access a broader and more diversified investor base, increasing demand for its issuances, and reinforcing its position in international capital markets.

More efficient funding conditions support stronger financial results, which, when retained and capitalized, further strengthen the institution’s capital base and expand its future lending capacity. This creates a virtuous cycle: greater investor demand reinforces scale, scale enhances the ability to mobilize private capital, and increased mobilization – a core component of the new business model – drives greater development impact across the region.  

An expanded balance sheet enables more projects across sectors and geographies, benefiting businesses and communities in 26 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

What a AAA Rating Means for a Multilateral Development Bank

The most important effect of a second AAA rating is structural expansion in the ability to mobilize more capital. For any issuer, it broadens the investor base and significantly increases demand for its bonds.  

For multilateral development banks (MDBs) like IDB Invest, this effect is amplified, directly enhancing their capacity to crowd in private capital at scale. The credit rating interacts with financial and regulatory mechanisms that favor these institutions and reinforce investors' appetite for assets considered among the safest in the market. As a result, MDBs benefit from regulatory features that enhance the appeal of their instruments.

A Validation of Institutional Strength

The S&P upgrade to AAA is a shared achievement. It reflects the collective effort of teams across the institution, the sustained support of its shareholders, and the trust of its clients and partners. It also shows how the institution has evolved and what it can continue to achieve.

Since 2016, IDB Invest has mobilized more than $75 billion in Latin America and the Caribbean, supporting over 700 projects across infrastructure, energy, trade, finance, health, and productive sectors. This work has strengthened thousands of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, supported job creation, and driven more resilient and sustainable growth across the region.

For Latin America and the Caribbean, this S&P upgrade translates into more capital, better, deeper markets, and greater impact. For IDB Invest, it marks the beginning of a new stage defined by confidence, ambition, and purpose.

The AAA rating recognizes what has been achieved and underscores the responsibility to continue building on that foundation and delivering results.