The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a member of the US-based IDB Group, recently announced that it is launching a Retirement Savings Laboratory to pilot-test and evaluate approximately 15 methods for encouraging “low-income and independent workers” to save for retirement. The goal is to get 400,000 people to begin saving “through interventions based on behavioral economics and the use of new technologies.” Further, according to Carmen Pagés, the chief of the Labor Market Division of IDB, “IDB wants to generate reliable evidence, through rigorous impact evaluations, to improve public policies in the region.”
The effort is funded by MetLife Foundation, an affiliate of US-based insurer MetLife; the Multilateral Investment Fund, another member of the IDB Group; and the IDB Network for Pensions in Latin America and the Caribbean, whose members include 15 countries and four international associations.
IDB is a multilateral finance institution that was established in 1959 and operates in Latin America and the Caribbean. IDB works with governments, companies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to provide both loans and grants to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), health, education and other sectors. IDB also provides technical assistance and research in these areas. With 48 member countries, IDB has offices in Washington, DC; Japan; France; and all 26 member countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. During 2017, IDB approved loans totaling USD 13 billion and had USD 89 billion in loans outstanding.
Sources and Additional Resources
IDB press release
https://www.iadb.org/en/news/idb-launches-initiative-promote-savings-retirement-latin-america-and-caribbean
Inter-American Development Bank Annual Report 2017: Financial Statements
https://publications.iadb.org/handle/11319/8825
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