Institute of International Finance (IIF)

Money Moves

Tracking record emerging-market refinancing needs

Twenty years ago, when a developing country needed to borrow from abroad, its government or corporations typically got a loan from a large international bank. Today, roughly 80 percent of that money comes instead from hedge funds, pension funds, insurers, and other non-bank investors — entities that can pull their money out far faster than a bank ever would. The International Monetary Fund laid out this transformation in a chapter of its April 2026 Global Financial Stability Report, warning that nearly $4 trillion in cumulative portfolio investment has flowed into emerging markets since the 2008 financial crisis, much of it from institutions with little obligation to stay.

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