Short answers, pulled from the story.
The World Bank Group is a family of five international organizations that make loans to developing countries. It is the largest development bank in the world, headquartered in Washington, D.C., with a stated mission of ending extreme poverty and building shared prosperity. In 2020, its total commitments amounted to USD 77.1 billion across 145 countries.
The World Bank Group was founded at the Bretton Woods Conference, which ran from the 1st to the 22nd of July 1944 in New Hampshire, United States. It came into formal existence on the 27th of December 1945, following international ratification of the Bretton Woods agreements, and commenced operations on the 25th of June 1946.
The World Bank approved its first loan on the 9th of May 1947: US$250 million to France for postwar reconstruction. In real terms, this remains the largest loan the bank has ever issued. Before the loan was approved, France was required to remove Communist Party members from its government.
The five organizations are the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, 1944), the International Finance Corporation (IFC, 1956), the International Development Association (IDA, 1960), the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID, 1965), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA, 1988).
Ajay Banga is the current and 14th president of the World Bank Group. His term began on the 2nd of June 2023. He is the first Indian American to lead the bank and was nominated by US President Joe Biden partly because of his support for climate action.
Major criticisms include the harmful effects of structural adjustment programs, which UNICEF reported in the late 1980s had reduced health, nutritional, and educational levels for tens of millions of children. The bank has also been criticized for governance - specifically, its domination by wealthy countries, the tradition of American presidents, and a 2021 independent inquiry finding that senior leaders pressured staff to alter Doing Business report data for China, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, and the United Arab Emirates.