The World Bank has appointed Mizuho banker Tsutomu Yamamoto as managing director of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (Miga). 

Yamamoto will take up the role in early December, succeeding Hiroshi Matano, the organisation says in a statement. He currently serves as a senior managing executive officer at Mizuho and head of the Japanese lender’s global transaction banking unit. He has been at the bank, including a predecessor bank, since 1991 and has held executive roles across the Americas, Asia and Europe, according to a Miga statement.  

“Tsutomu Yamamoto has more than 30 years of experience in banking and finance at Mizuho,” says World Bank Group president Ajay Banga. “Given the crucial role guarantees have to play in mobilising the private sector to create jobs, his expertise will be invaluable for growing our guarantee business.” 

Miga provides guarantees for trade finance products such as loans and letters of credit issued by commercial banks, as well as for projects and other investments in emerging markets.  

Last year, the World Bank revamped its guarantee services by bringing them all under Miga, and said it was aiming to issue at least US$20bn in guarantees by the end of this decade.  

The World Bank’s guarantee platform issued US$12.3bn in guarantees in the most recent financial year, Miga says.