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World Bank Group Timeline

August 02, 1963

First World Bank loan sold

The first loan the World Bank made, in 1947 to Credit National of France for $250 million, is also the first loan to be sold. The World Bank Group sells the loan's remaining maturities, amounting to about $58.6 million, to the Banque de France.

Resource Gallery

Correspondence from President Woods to M. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, French Minister of Finance

Aug. 7, 1963
President Woods' letter to the French minister of finance remarks on the origins of the World Bank Group's first loan before suggesting the Bank may offer bonds in the French bond market in the coming year (1582897).

France Reconstruction Project

P037383: Approved May 9, 1947
The project provides assistance with the reconstruction of France's economy and the import of specific goods and equipment necessary to its economic rehabilitation.

Telegram from World Bank Group Treasury to the French Ministry of Finance

July 16, 1963
Raymond Deely of the World Bank Group's Treasury Department describes the terms of a potential sale of the Bank's first loan to the borrower, the French Ministry of Finance (1582897).