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The U.S. government is reviewing whether the World Bank needs a capital increase after several development banks requested more funds, said John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“We are going through a careful process to size up the capital needs of each institution, determine whether additional resources are warranted, and, if new funding is appropriate, whether is should be temporary or permanent,” he said in a speech at the World Bank’s Washington headquarters today.

The bank is seeking to raise about $7 billion, while other development banks such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Inter-American Development Bank are also asking shareholders for more resources.

As governments face fiscal constraints, they need to make sure that development banks “are actually supporting 21st- century priorities,” Kerry said bad credit cash loan.

Such priorities include better reflecting “the economic realities of today,” Kerry said, citing China as being underrepresented at the International Monetary Fund and at the World Bank compared with European countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands.

The World Bank also “can play a profoundly important role in shifting the balance toward climate solutions,” Kerry said. It has to be a leader among other institutions, for instance, by helping countries find alternatives to polluting energy projects, he said.

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