Colombian diplomat and former minister of economic development Luis Alberto Moreno has taken office at the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) for a five-year term.

Moreno is succeeding Enrique Iglesias, who resigned his post on May 31 after three successive terms since 1988. The president oversees operations of the IADB Group, which is made up of the bank and its affiliates, the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC) and the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF).

The oldest and largest regional development bank in the world, the IADB is the primary source of multilateral funding in Latin America and the Caribbean. It was founded in 1959 to promote economic and social development in the region.

The bank’s central mandate is to reduce poverty, enhance social equity and promote environmentally sustainable economic growth. Its priority areas of activity are social programmes, competitiveness, modernisation of the state and regional integration.