World Bank

A specialized agency of the United Nations. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the World Bank Group consists of five divisions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (established in 1945, a year after the Bretton Woods conference), the International Finance Corporation (1956), the International Development Association (1960), the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (1966), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (1988). The World Bank operates under the coordinating machinery of the United Nation’s Economic and Social Council. At its Web site, the World Bank states that its "primary focus is on helping the poorest people and the poorest countries," and that it aims to "help developing countries onto paths of stable, *sustainable, and equitable growth." In addition to its economic and development activities, the World Bank also takes an interest in the theory and practice of global *corporate governance. It assists individual countries by assessing their corporate governance institutional frameworks, using the Principles of Corporate Governance of the *Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development as a benchmark. The World Bank also publishes a wide range of guidance, statistics, and research on international corporate governance and financial accountability, an inventory of which is available from the organization’s Web site. It also participates in the *International Forum on Accountancy Development. Web site: www.worldbank.org