Dive Brief:

• The World Bank named David Vaillant, an executive at French bank BNP Paribas, to be its next CFO, according to a Thursday press release. He will also be a managing director. 
• Vaillant, global head of finance, strategy and participations for BNP Paribas Asset Management, will take the World Bank role early next month, a spokesperson for the organization said. He succeeds Anshula Kant, who will be retiring. Kant has served in the post since 2019. 
• World Bank President Ajay Banga said Vaillant’s experience working with investors, governments and central banks made him a good fit for the role. "This is the ideal combination of experience needed to run the World Bank Group's finance function, manage risk, and expand the private capital we mobilize for development," Banga said in a statement in the release. 

Dive Insight:

The Washington-based international development organization’s incoming finance chief is joining as the institution has seen a shift in its sources of capital. 

With some donor nations facing budget constraints, the World Bank has sought to attract more private capital to finance projects to meet such goals as reducing poverty, The New York Times reported.

Vaillant, a lawyer who worked at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom early in his career, joined BNP Paribas in 2007 as vice president of corporate finance, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

In his most recent role, he led BNP’s €5.1 billion acquisition of AXA Investment Managers, which created an entity that manages €1.6 trillion in client assets. 

As World Bank CFO, Vaillant will be responsible for financial management, treasury operations and risk management. He will also lead bond issuance, which has raised nearly $82 billion in fiscal 2026, according to the release. He will work on the World Bank’s “private capital mobilization agenda,” which includes developing new financing vehicles to draw more private investors.

“The World Bank Group sits at a junction very few institutions occupy,” Vaillant wrote in a LinkedIn post Thursday. “It can convene governments, investors and development partners across emerging and developed markets at the same time, and channel funding toward development objectives while holding to the risk discipline that underpins its standing in the capital markets.”

Vaillant said the World Bank’s missions of ending extreme poverty and driving shared prosperity “on a liveable planet” go hand in hand, and noted he was “deeply honored” to be joining the organization.

The World Bank’s plans have been challenged by political pressure. In June, the organization scrapped a goal to commit 45% of its annual financing to projects with climate benefits amid pressure from the Trump administration to drop the climate lending target.