The regional development banks (RDBs) are important global institutions but often are overshadowed by more widely studied institutions such as the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF). In the past decade, high profile protests against World Bank, IMF, and World Trade Organization policies have overshadowed the political role of the RDBs. Designed to provide readers with the definitive guide to the RDBs, Jonathan Strand exposes the political nature of RDB development lending and demonstrates the need to include the RDBs in any discussion of reform of the global economic architecture.