世界银行的全名是国际复兴与开发银行。其职能是为重建与开发经济所需的长期外汇二十年或三十年提供一种筹资机制。大家认识到，从海外购置设施是一条进步的捷径，但，对于一个缺少具体出口产品以获得购买此类设施所需外汇的国家来讲，这是行不通的。银行通过提供长期筹资，可以加快这个区域的经济增长。
The World Bank obtains the money it lends from three sources. When it was founded, members were required to subscribe3 to its capitalization. Each was assigned a block of stock in proportion to its Gross National Product.
世界银行的贷款资金有三个来源。在创办时，它需要成员国认购股份，提供资本金。每一个国家可以按其国民生产总值的肯定比率分配到肯定份额的股份。
Ten percent of the subscription4 was to be paid to the Bank in cash, and the remainder was to be paid if the Bank needed it to cover its financial problems. The second source is private lenders. The 90 percent of subscriptions5 served as a guarantee for the Bank's own borrowing and thus enabled it to compete with the U.S. government, blue-chip private corporations, and other high-quality debtors6 in borrowing from the public. The money it obtained from borrowing was then lent to needy7 nations. In this way the Bank pledged the honor and the resources of all its members to repay loans to developing or war-torn countries. If the borrower defaulted, the Bank would first use up the money paid in by its member countries, then call on them to contribute more. A third source of money has since emerged the profits from interest paid by borrowers from the Bank. By charging interest on money contributed initially8 by member countries, the Bank has succeeded in roughly doubling these contributions.
10%的股金用现金支付给世界银行，剩余的股金待碰到经济难点需要资金时再行支付。第二个资金来源是私人贷款者。90%的股金作为银行本身借贷的担保，从而使世界银行可以同美国政府，营业额优良的私人公司与其他向公众集资、信誉靠谱的贷款者进行角逐。世界银行再用筹备来的资金贷给那些贫穷的国家，如此，等于向那些进步中或遭受战争创伤的所有成员国偿还贷款提供了信誉和资源保障。如借款人资不抵债，银行第一用其成员国缴纳的资金全力给予支持，然后需要其成员国再追加认购股金。资金的第三个来源是后来产才产生的价值 即借款人向银行偿付的利息。对用股金收取利息，银行已成功地将股金增长了近一倍。
By June 1976,the Bank had made over $42.9 billion in loans to 115 countries. Most of the loans the Bank made have been for projects designed to improve the infrastructure9, primarily improvements in transportation, communications, and energy. Since the late 1960s, the Bank has expanded its activities to include housing, education, credit to farmers, irrigation, and a variety of other projects with more direct effects on inpiduals, particularly the very poor.
截止1976年6月，世界银行已向115个国家发放了超越4290亿USD的贷款。决大多数贷款用于那些为改变基础设施而设计的工程项目，主要用于改变交通、通讯与能源等基础设施。自20世纪60年代后期，该银行已将它经营活动扩大到包含住房、教育、农业贷款、灌溉，与其他各种各样的项目，对个人、特别是对没钱人产生愈加直接的影响
