What Is the Asian Development Bank?

The Asian Development Bank’s primary mission is to “foster economic growth and cooperation” among countries in the Asia-Pacific Region. Founded in 1966 and based in Manila, Philippines, the ADB assists members and partners by providing loans, technical assistance, grants, and equity investments to promote social and economic development.

The ADB has been responsible for major projects in the region and raises capital regularly through the international bond markets. The ADB also relies on member contributions, retained earnings from lending, and the repayment of loans for the funding of the organization.

How the Asian Development Bank Works

The Asian Development Bank provides assistance to its developing member countries, the private sector, and public-private partnerships through grants, loans, technical assistance, and equity investments to promote development. The ADB regularly facilitates policy dialogues and provides advisory services. They also use co-financing operations that tap official, commercial, and export credit sources while providing assistance.

Membership in the ADB is open to members and associate members of the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East. It’s also open to other regional countries and non-regional developed countries that are members of the U.N. or of any of its specialized agencies. 

Financing Provided by the Asian Development bank

The ADB provides both private financing and sovereign (public) financing. Private sector efforts focus on projects that help promote private investments in the region that will have significant development impact and will lead to accelerated, sustainable, and inclusive growth. Public-sector financing provides funding for member countries with flexibility in determining how they can achieve development goals.

In 2021, the ADB committed nearly US$13.5 billion to help its developing member countries address the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis and address vaccination needs, and has mobilized a further $12.9 billion in co-financing from partners. Through a $9 billion Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility, or APVAX, announced in December 2020, the ADB provided funding for vaccine procurement, logistics, and distribution.

The total private financing portfolio consisted of $14.2 billion at the end of 2021. In terms of sovereign financing, ADB’s portfolio stood at $104 billion by the end of 2021, consisting of 713 loans, 392 grants, 915 TA projects, one guarantee, and 1 equity investment.

Structure of the Asian Development Bank

According to ADB’s website, “the Agreement Establishing the Asian Development Bank, known as the ADB Charter, vests all the powers of the institution in the Board of Governors, which in turn delegates some of these powers to the Board of Directors. The Board of Governors meets formally once a year during ADB’s Annual Meeting.” The ADB’s highest policy-making body is its Board of Governors, which comprises one representative from each member.

The two largest shareholders of the Asian Development Bank are the United States and Japan. Although the majority of the Bank’s members are from the Asia-Pacific region, the industrialized nations are also well-represented. Regional development banks usually work in harmony with both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in their activities.

Asian Development Bank Country Relationships

When ADB was founded in 1966, it consisted of 31 members. Since then, membership has grown to 68 members, which is made up of 48 regional and 19 non-regional members. Membership as of 2022 includes:

What Is an Asset-Liability Committee?

An asset-liability committee (ALCO), also known as surplus management, is a supervisory group that coordinates the management of assets and liabilities with a goal of earning adequate returns. By managing a company’s assets and liabilities, executives are able to influence net earnings, which may translate into increased stock prices.

Understanding Asset-Liability Committees (ALCO)

An ALCO at the board or management level provides important management information systems (MIS) and oversight for effectively evaluating on- and off-balance-sheet risk for an institution. Members incorporate interest rate risk and liquidity consideration into a bank’s operating model.

One of the ALCO’s goals is ensuring adequate liquidity while managing the bank’s spread between the interest income and interest expense. Members also consider investments and operational risk.

ALCO meetings should be conducted at least quarterly. Member responsibilities typically include managing market risk tolerances, establishing appropriate MIS, and reviewing and approving the bank’s liquidity and funds management policy at least annually.

Members also develop and maintain a contingency funding plan, review immediate funding needs and sources, and determine liquidity risk exposures to adverse scenarios with varying probability and severity.

Special Considerations

An ALCO’s strategies, policies, and procedures should relate to the board’s goals, objectives, and risk tolerances for operating standards. Strategies should articulate liquidity risk tolerances and address the extent to which central elements of funds management are centralized or delegated in the institution.

Strategies should also communicate how much emphasis is placed on using asset liquidity, liabilities, and operating cash flows for meeting daily and contingent funding needs.

Example of an Asset-Liability Committee

Alfa Bank’s ALCO is appointed by a resolution of the bank’s executive board and includes seven or more members with the right to vote for a one-year period. The ALCO is headed by the ALCO chair appointed by the bank’s executive board. ALCO members without the right to vote are appointed upon presentation to the ALCO chair by order of the bank executive board from among bank specialists and managers for a one-year period.

The bank’s ALCO meetings are typically held every two weeks. Additional meetings may be scheduled as needed. The ALCO has the authority to resolve matters submitted for consideration if more than half of the members with the right to vote are present at the committee meeting. A resolution is passed when more than half the members with the right to vote are present and vote in favor of the resolution. ALCO’s resolutions are binding on all bank employees.

What is Accretive?

In both finance and in general lexicon, the term “accretive” is the adjective form of the word “accretion”, which refers to gradual or incremental growth. For example, an acquisition deal may be deemed accretive for the absorbing company, if that deal contributes to an increase in earnings per share.

By definition, in corporate finance, accretive acquisitions of assets or businesses must ultimately add more value to a company, than the expenditures associated with the acquisition. This can be due to the fact that the newly-acquired assets in question are purchased at a discount to their perceived current market value, or if the assets are expected to grow, as a direct result of the transaction.

Key Takeaways
–The term “accretive” is an adjective that refers to business deals that result in gradual or incremental growth in value for a company.
–In corporate finance, accretive acquisitions of assets must add more value to a company, than the costs of acquiring the target entity,
–Accretive deals can occur if acquired assets are purchased at a discount to their perceived current market value.
–In general finance, accretive investments refer to any security that is purchased at a discount. 

Breaking Down Accretive

In general finance, accretion refers to the change in the price of a bond or security. In fixed-income investments, the word accretive may be used to describe the increase in value attributable to interest accrued but not paid. For example, discounted bonds earn interest through accretion, until they reach maturity. In such cases, acquired bonds are acquired at a discount when compared to the current face value of the bond, also known as the par. As the bond matures, the value increases, based on the interest rate that was in effect at the time of issuance.

Determining the Rate of Accretion

The rate of accretion is determined by dividing the discount by the number of years in the term. In the case of zero coupon bonds, the interest acquired is not compounded. While the value of the bond increases based on the agreed-upon interest rate, it must be held for the agreed-upon term, before it can be cashed out.

Examples of Accretion

If a person purchases a bond with a value of $1,000, for the discounted price of $750, with the understanding that it will be held for 10 years, the deal is considered accretive, because the bond pays out the initial investment, plus interest. Depending on the type of bond purchased, interest may be paid out at regular intervals (annually, semi-annually, etc.), or it may be paid in lump sum, upon maturity.

With zero coupon bonds, there is no interest accrual. Instead, it is purchased at a discount, such as the initial $750 investment for a bond with a face value of $1,000. The bond pays the original face value, also known as the accreted value, of $1,000, in a lump sum upon maturity.

In corporate finance acquisition deals are often accretive. First, let’s assume that the earnings per share of Corporation X is listed as $100, and earnings per share of Corporation Y is listed as $50. When Corporation X acquires Corporation Y, Corporations X’s earnings per share increase to $150–rendering this a 50% accretive deal.

[Important: The antonym to “accretive” is “dilutive”, which describes any deal which causes a corporation’s earnings per share value to drop.]

What Is Accounts Receivable Aging?

Accounts receivable aging is a periodic report that categorizes a company’s accounts receivable according to the length of time an invoice has been outstanding. It is used as a gauge to determine the financial health and reliability of a company’s customers.

If the accounts receivable aging shows a company’s receivables are being collected much more slowly than normal, this is a warning sign that business may be slowing down or that the company is taking greater credit risk in its sales practices.

How Accounts Receivable Aging Works

Accounts receivable aging, as a management tool, can indicate that certain customers are becoming credit risks, and may reveal whether the company should keep doing business with customers that are chronically late payers. 

Accounts receivable aging has columns that are typically broken into date ranges of 30 days each and shows the total receivables that are currently due, as well as those that are past due for each 30-day time period.

Allowance for Doubtful Accounts

Accounts receivable aging is useful in determining the allowance for doubtful accounts. When estimating the amount of bad debt to report on a company’s financial statements, the accounts receivable aging report is useful to estimate the total amount to be written off.

The primary useful feature is the aggregation of receivables based on the length of time the invoice has been past due. Accounts that are more than six months old are unlikely to be collected, except through collections or a court judgment.

Companies apply a fixed percentage of default to each date range. Invoices that have been past due for longer periods of time are given a higher percentage due to increasing default risk and decreasing collectibility. The sum of the products from each outstanding date range provides an estimate regarding the total of uncollectible receivables.

Aged Receivables Report

The aged receivables report is a table that provides details of specific receivables based on age. The specific receivables are aggregated at the bottom of the table to display the total receivables of a company, based on the number of days the invoice is past due.

The typical column headers include 30-day windows of time, and the rows represent the receivables of each customer. Here’s an example of an accounts receivable aging report.