It's all ABC for the ADB

They also use their imagination to help with increasingly innovative products. One such product is the Innovative Finance Facility for Climate in Asia and the Pacific (IF-CAP), which was launched in 2023. IF-CAP is a leveraged guarantee facility for climate finance that enables ADB to use the guarantees it receives from its partners, Denmark, Japan, Korea, Sweden, the UK and the US, to leverage ADB’s balance sheet to expand lending to climate-related projects in its DMCs by a factor of US$4.5 for every US$1 of guarantee. It was the first of its kind guarantee facility ever undertaken by a MDB and was an initiative on which Nigel had the privilege of working. Nigel comments, “The IF-CAP guarantees to date should enable ADB to unlock an additional $11 billion in climate financing. Working at ADB and having the opportunity to contribute in a significant way to such impactful projects is incredibly rewarding.”

Andy, too, has been working on some groundbreaking projects. He mentions the full mutual reliance framework (FMRF), which brought together the ADB and the World Bank. Typically, when cofinancing a project, each institution would apply its own operational policies that borrowers have to abide by, for example on environmental and social safeguards, anticorruption and integrity, procurement and financial management. The borrower would have to work with each lender to ensure compliance. However, under FMRF, a rigorous policy analysis established “substantial alignment” between the policies which, together with the trust established over many years of collaboration, enables one of the two institutions to serve as ‘lead lender’ in charge of the preparation and supervision of a co-financed project in accordance with its operational policies.

Nigel adds: “We’re using the powers that we learnt for good. That helps drive us to deliver for the organisation and to do our best to achieve positive outcomes in what are often very tricky situations. When you look back at what you’ve achieved, you have a real sense of pride, and that’s something we hear from colleagues across the Office of the General Counsel.” Andy adds: “What we are doing is very important work to help ADB achieve its development priorities across Asia and the Pacific.”

The ADB legal team has also been recognised in industry awards, including being named as one of the top 10 innovative in-house legal teams under the FT Innovative Lawyers Asia-Pacific Awards 2025 with ADB’s work on the ADB-World Bank Full Mutual Reliance Framework also being highlighted, as well as its work in supporting the poor and vulnerable people of Afghanistan via UN agencies for which it won in the sustainability and impact category of the FT Innovative Lawyers Asia-Pacific Awards 2024. The team has also been recognised as the best in-house legal team in the region by the Asian Legal Business Southeast Asia Law Awards for the past five years running.