Goldman's Jin-Yong Cai moves to IFC

The World Bank has hired Jin-Yong Cai, a veteran Chinese banker, to head its private-sector investment arm, IFC, which manages $20 billion worth of emerging-market investment projects.

Cai, the former president of Goldman Sachs’s China investment banking division and head of Goldman Sachs Gao Hua Securities, is taking up the role of executive vice-president and chief executive officer at IFC. He is the second Chinese national to hold a senior position at the World Bank group after Lin Yifu, who became the bank’s first chief economist from a developing country in June 2008. He left in June 2012.

The appointment will be effective October 1, 2012, according to a statement on the bank’s website.

“I am pleased that a world-class financial and development professional like Jin-Yong has decided to bring his considerable talent to the work of the [IFC],” said World Bank’s group president Jim Yong Kim in the statement.

“With his extensive knowledge of global financial markets and investment climates, he’ll help IFC identify sound, strategic private sector investments and public-private partnerships that will help reduce poverty and create greater prosperity for people in the developing world,” he said.

Cai has been involved in the Chinese capital markets and merger advisory business since the mid-1990s, leading many of Goldman Sachs’s key China transactions across different industries. Cai was named as one of the top China bankers by FinanceAsia this year.

Cai started his career as a professional at the World Bank, where he worked as an economist in Central Europe and South Asia. He has a doctorate in economics from Boston University.

“The private sector has a vital role to play in building prosperity and eradicating poverty in developing countries,” Cai said in the same statement. “As the world’s leading private sector development institution, IFC has done much to create opportunity for people to escape poverty and improve their lives. Much more can be done and I look forward to working with all of IFC’s stakeholders and clients to build on its impressive record.”

Following Cai’s departure, Matthew Westerman, Goldman’s co-head of the investment banking division for Asia-Pacific ex-Japan, will take on day-to-day management responsibility for the investment banking franchise in China.

“As our franchise in China grows, the ability to leverage our global capabilities to deliver integrated solutions to our clients is more important than ever,” a spokesperson at Goldman said. “Matthew’s experience and deep relationships across markets and the firm will help to further expand our franchise and strengthen our leadership position in China.”