Standard Terms, Conditions, and Templates for Sovereign and Public Sector Credits as Published by Official Creditors

Introduction and Overview

This is a compilation of standard terms, conditions, and agreement templates (together, Standard Terms) used by multilateral and government-owned or mandated institutions (together, Official Creditors) to extend credit to foreign governments and public sector entities, as published on the creditors’ websites. We present it as a standalone resource on the #PublicDebtIsPublic platform to show how different creditors approach standardization and disclosure, and to inform good contracting and transparency practices. It is a living document, last updated on July 16, 2026. It will be updated on a rolling basis to reflect new developments and user feedback.

Links to Official Creditors’ websites and full-text Standard Terms found on those websites are published at the arrows below, grouped by country and institution. When Sovereign Debt Forum (SDF) researchers did not find Standard Terms on the creditor’s website, the entry is marked “Not found.”

Standard Terms and full-text contracts found in the public domain but not on the creditor’s website may be retrieved using the search function on our platform. Grant and equity financing are outside the scope of this resource and the #PublicDebtIsPublic platform for now. For details on the scope of coverage, classification, and search methods, please consult the Methodology section below.

Although we strive to collect and present all primary source materials in the public domain that meet the criteria set out below, we cannot guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or current status of the information presented. We do not publish paywalled, password-protected, or proprietary information. The wide variety of official providers’ contracting and disclosure practices makes certain information gaps inevitable, and increases the risk of errors and omissions in our presentation. If you notice an error, omission, or a broken link, please let us know in this feedback form. For more, please see ourTerms of Use.

Click on the arrows below to expand and view creditor website and full-text document links. Please note that EU institutions are listed under Multilateral, Regional, and Other International Organizations.

Multilateral, Regional and Other International Organizations

(Includes European Union institutions, listed under Multilateral, Regional, and Other International Organizations)

African Development Bank (AfDB)

African Export-Import Bank – Not found

Africa Finance Corporation – Not found

Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) – Not found

Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD) – Not found

Arab Monetary Fund – Not found

Asian Development Bank (ADB)

*** Earlier versions may be found by searching the ADB’s website

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB)

CAF – Banco de desarrollo de América Latina y El Caribe (Development Bank of Latin America and the Carribean) – Not found

Caribbean Development Bank – Not found

Council of Europe Development Bank

Central American Bank for Economic Integration – Not found

Development Bank of Central African States / La Banque de Développement des États de l’Afrique Centrale (BDEAC)

East African Development Bank – Not found

ECO Trade and Development Bank (ETDB) – Not found

Eurasian Development Bank – Not found

Eurasian Fund for Stabilisation and Development (EFSD) – Not found

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) – Not found

European Investment Bank (EIB) – Not found

European Stability Mechanism (ESM)

FONPLATA Development Bank – Not found

Inter-American Development Bank Group***

*** Earlier versions may be found by searching the IADB’s website

Inter-American Development Bank Group – IDB Invest – Not found

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

International Investment Bank (IIB) – Not found

Islamic Development Bank – Not found

New Development Bank – Not found

Nordic Development Fund – Not found

Nordic Investment Bank – Not found

OPEC Fund for International Development

Shelter Afrique – Not found

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Development Fund – Not found

Trade and Development Bank (TDB) – Not found

West African Development Bank, Banque Ouest Africaine de Développement (BOAD) – Not found

World Bank Group – International Bank for Reconstruction and Development ***

*** Earlier versions may be found by searching the World Bank website

World Bank Group – International Development Association ***

*** Earlier versions may be found by searching the World Bank website

World Bank Group – International Finance Corporation – Not found

World Bank Group – Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency

G-20 Bilateral Official Creditors

(Excludes European Union institutions, listed under Multilateral, Regional, and Other International Organizations)

Argentine Republic
Australia (Commonwealth of)
Brazil (Federative Republic of)
Canada
China (People’s Republic of)
China (People’s Republic of) – Hong Kong
Germany (Federal Republic of)
French Republic
India (Republic of)
Indonesia (Republic of)
Italian Republic
Japan
Korea (Republic of)
Mexico (United Mexican States)
Saudi Arabia (Kingdom of)
South Africa (Republic of)
Türkiye (Republic of)
Russian Federation
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
United States of America
Other Bilateral Official Creditors
Austria (Republic of)
Belgium (Kingdom of)
Bulgaria (Republic of)
Croatia (Republic of)
Cyprus (Republic of)
Czech Republic
Denmark (Kingdom of)
Estonia (Republic of)
Finland (Republic of)
Greece (Hellenic Republic)
Hungary
Ireland
Israel (State of)
Kuwait (State of)
Latvia (Republic of)
Lithuania (Republic of)
Luxembourg (Grand Duchy of)
Malta (Republic of)
Norway (Kingdom of)
Poland (Republic of)
Portuguese Republic
Romania
Slovak Republic
Slovenia (Republic of)
Spain (Kingdom of)
Sweden (Kingdom of)
Switzerland (Swiss Confederation)
Qatar (State of)
The Netherlands (Kingdom of)
United Arab Emirates

Methodology

What Are Standard Terms?

Most creditors use in-house forms or those published by industry groups as the basis for their agreements with public sector borrowers. These are negotiated and adapted for specific transactions. The standard terms change rarely– sometimes, not for decades .

Our resource covers two kinds of Standard Terms:

  • Standard terms that the creditor regularly incorporates by reference or appends in their entirety to transaction-specific terms, and
  • Templates or forms of agreement that the creditor uses regularly in its public debt transactions.

In both cases, transaction-specific terms usually supplement and may modify the Standard Terms.

We exclude documents that would not be part of a legally binding agreement, such as application forms, process handbooks, disbursement manuals, transparency or disclosure policies, product descriptions, and exposure reporting.

Which Institutions Are Covered?

Official Creditors take many different forms, have different mandates and contracting practices, and use different financial terms. In selecting and grouping creditors for this resource, wehave sought to apply consistent and stable criteria developed by international organizations, financial industry bodies, and academic researchers, as detailed below, with a bias toward broader geographic and institutional coverage.

The focus of #PublicDebtIsPublic is public debt, and the focus of this resource is Official Creditors. We therefore exclude

  • ✕ Providers of grant or equity financing only
  • ✕ Providers that are not owned, controlled, or mandated by governments, and
  • ✕ Providers that do not extend credit to, or guaranteed by, foreign governments or foreign public sector entities.

We elaborate below.

Multilateral Creditors

This category comprises multilateral, regional, and plurilater al institutions that are owned by two or more states, and extend credit to the public sector on either concessional or market-based terms. This is a very broad definition that captures many different kinds of institutions, credit and disclosure practices .

Because in some cases, creditors invoke their multilateral character to claim repayment preference in a sovereign debt restructuring, the boundaries of this category are contested. When we list an institution as “multilateral,” we do not take a position on its claim status or repayment ranking.

The list of multilateral, regional, and plurilateral institutions in Appendix III to the IMF Policy Paper: Macroeconomic Developments and Prospects in Low-Income Developing Countries (March 2018) was our starting point for the scope of coverage. It is the most inclusive list of its kind published by an international organization since 2015. In addition, we consulted each institution’s charter, where available.

We exclude institutions that only make grants and those that do not lend to the public sector, as well as monetary institutions. Monetary institutions, reserve-sharing arrangements and swap line networks use transaction forms and documentation practices that differ substantially from multilateral development banks (MDBs). We plan to include monetary institutions in future compilations.

Official Bilateral Creditors

G-20 members, including the European Union (EU), together with EU member states, account for the largest number of creditors in this resource. For governments that are not part of the G-20 or the European Union, we drew on the following sources (as of June 26, 2026):

We divide official bilateral creditors into concessional development lenders and market-based export credit providers, and add a residual category for those that fit neither label, as detailed below. These categories roughly map onto the international policy coordination mechanisms under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) , although not all bilateral creditors participate. Our categories may differ from those used in any given domestic legal system (including those of the creditors ), and those used by international fora such as the Paris Club of official bilateral creditors.

  • ODA: Government agencies, instrumentalities, and state-owned or mandated entities that are listed as a part of a country’s “institutional set-up” for ODA, as described in its OECD Development Co-operation Profile . From the institutional set-up, we include (i) providers of ODA in the form of concessional debt financing extended bilaterally on below-market terms to sovereign or other public-sector recipients and (ii) institutions responsible for ODA policy. We exclude ODA providers in the form of grants and contributions to, or shareholdings in, multilateral development banks (MDBs).
  • ECA: Official, or officially mandated, entities that provide loans, guarantees, insurance, or other forms of export financing that become direct or contingent public debt liabilities. ECAs generally extend credit on market-based terms to support their domestic exporters. An entity identified as an ECA in the Berne Union membership roster is classified as an ECA in our list. Where an entity provides both ECA and ODA financing, it is listed as an ECA with an asterisk(*).
  • Other: All other official, or officially mandated, institutions that extend credit to the public sector in other countries. This is a residual category that may include concessional or market-based lending by line ministries, military cooperation lending, and lending by public-private hybrid institutions.

In selecting and grouping the institutions, we used the following sources (as of June 26, 2026):

Where Do We Find Standard Terms?

This resource covers only those Standard Terms published on Official Creditors’ websites. As part of the broader #PublicDebtIsPublic initiative, we also identify and publish Standard Terms found on borrowers’ websites, on the websites of accountability institutions and civil society organizations, and in media and research reports. In many cases, the Standard Terms are appended to transaction-specific terms .

For this resource, SDF researchers began by navigating creditor website tabs for operations, financial products, resources, and publications, before using their website search function for terms such as “credit,” “loan,” “lending,” “standard terms,” “general terms and conditions,” “terms and conditions” and “general conditions.” When a creditor website search failed to identify the relevant document, they performed a Google search using the creditor’s name or home page URL with variations of these terms, which led to a handful of documents located, but not indexed, on the creditors’ websites.

At least two post-graduate law researchers performed the original search independently for each creditor; their results were reviewed by at least one senior SDF research staff member. Separately, two law student researchers were asked to perform the same search, timing themselves as a rough proxy for ease of access to the document. Where Standard Terms were published and indexed on the creditor’s website, the law students usually found them in under five minutes. In some cases, SDF research teams spent an additional one to three hours to confirm that the Standard Terms were not on the creditor’s website.

Where we found at least one set of Standard Terms on a creditor’s website, we listed the document title and linked to the full-text file under the creditor’s name and home page link. Where we found no Standard Terms, we added “Not found” after the home page link.

“Not found” may cover one or more of the following scenarios:

  • The entity lends to sovereigns using Standard Terms but does not publish them on its website;
  • The entity does not use Standard Terms or templates;
  • We did not find the Standard Terms using website navigation and basic search tools; or
  • We found the Standard Terms, but not on the creditor’s website (for example, in a borrower’s document repository), and published them elsewhere on the #PublicDebtIsPublic platform.
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