 The World Bank and International Monetary Fund were designed by delegates at the Bretton Woods conference in 1944 and the World Bank , then consisting of only the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development , became operational in 1946 . Robert L. Garner joined the World Bank in 1947 as a senior executive and expressed his view that private business could play an important role in international development . In 1950 , Garner and his colleagues proposed establishing a new institution for the purpose of making private investments in the developing countries served by the Bank . The U.S. government encouraged the idea of an international corporation working in tandem with the World Bank to invest in private enterprises without accepting guarantees from governments , without managing those enterprises , and by collaborating with third party investors . When describing the IFC in 1955 , World Bank President Eugene R. Black said that the IFC would only invest in private firms , rather than make loans to governments , and it would not manage the projects in which it invests . In 1956 the International Finance Corporation became operational under the leadership of Garner . It initially had 12 staff members and $ 100 million ( $ 844 @.@ 9 million in 2012 dollars ) in capital . The corporation made its inaugural investment in 1957 by making a $ 2 million ( $ 16 @.@ 4 million in 2012 dollars ) loan to a Brazil @-@ based affiliate of Siemens & Halske ( now Siemens AG ) . In 2007 , IFC bought 18 % stake in the Indian Financial firm , Angel Broking . In December 2015 IFC supported Greek banks with 150 million euros by buying shares in four of them : Alpha Bank ( 60 million ) , Eurobank ( 50 million ) , Piraeus Bank ( 20 million ) and National Bank of Greece ( 20 million ) . 
