Financial Sector Support
Supporting World Bank operations across the full financial sector agenda — from regulation and supervision to product design, risk-sharing facilities, microfinance, and credit lines for firms in developing economies.
Independent Consultant · 40+ years in international development
Helping World Bank teams move projects from concept to implementation.
Forty years of financial sector, private sector development, operations, and training experience — built across the World Bank, CARE, the Peace Corps, and projects in every region of the world.
What I do
Four practice areas, plus a specialty.
Most engagements pull from more than one of these. Smaller country programs often combine financial sector and SME work in a single operation — I can support both.
SME & Private Sector Development
Competitiveness programs, matching grant schemes, and capacity building for government agencies, chambers, and private sector associations. Designing systems that satisfy Bank requirements while reflecting what has actually worked elsewhere.
World Bank Operations
Moving projects through the Bank — concept review, appraisal, board approval, and the long tail of implementation. After hundreds of operations, I know where the bottlenecks sit and how to design around them.
Training
Lead trainer for a decade across Bank operations, new-staff onboarding, finance, and SME development. Designed and delivered courses for groups of 10 to 75 participants in HQ and country offices, and monitoring-and-evaluation training for UNDP staff in Africa and South Asia.
Specialty
Financial Intermediary Financing Reviews
Author of the World Bank's Financial Intermediary Financing guidance — the standard for lines of credit, guarantee funds, and equity funds in Bank projects. I help task teams design FIF components that meet the policy and preserve maximum operational flexibility. Recent engagements include the Turkey and digital-development portfolios.
About
27 years on staff, now independent.
Mike Goldberg has more than 40 years of experience in international finance and private sector development, with work in every region of the world. He began as a Peace Corps small business volunteer in Ecuador and a project manager for CARE in Guatemala before joining the World Bank in 1992.
At the Bank, Mike spent 27 years leading or supporting teams in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, South and East Asia, Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa. He served as Lead Operations Officer for Vice Presidents in the LAC and Africa regions and was a lead trainer for a decade across finance, private sector development, Bank operations, and staff onboarding.
Since 2020, Mike has worked as an independent consultant supporting World Bank task teams in Somalia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Malawi, South Africa, Turkey, Barbados, Ecuador, Egypt, Congo, Papua New Guinea, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, as well as digital-development projects across East and South Asia.
Selected publications
Books and guidance.
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Financial Intermediary Financing Guidance
World Bank · Author of the current standard governing lines of credit, guarantee funds, and equity funds across Bank operations.
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Managing Risk and Creating Value with Microfinance
World Bank Training Series · with Eric Palladini.
View on Open Knowledge Repository → -
How Firms Cope with Crime and Violence: Experiences from around the World
World Bank, 2014 · Small business resilience in conflict-affected environments.
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Lines of Credit in a COVID World
The Fast, Furious… and Flexible · World Bank, 2020.
For hiring teams
Sole source justification & contracting details.
For a focused assignment, a task team can engage me directly — without a lengthy competitive process — on the basis of unique skills and experience. Below are ready-to-use sole source justifications for the three most common cases. Copy the one that fits, adjust as needed, and attach my CV.
Contracting & registration details
- Sole proprietorship
- Michael Joshua Goldberg
- World Bank registration (HR system)
- VMP #0000776
- Maryland tax identification number
- L27223387
Project Design and Redesign Operations Specialist
Mr. Goldberg is a registered independent contractor with the World Bank (#VMP 0000776). He is an expert with more than 25 years of operational experience in World Bank project design, implementation, and evaluation. Mr. Goldberg was a task team leader for 18 years in four regions. He has also been a lead trainer for operational courses (1 to 5 days) for Bank staff and counterparts, as well as operational clinics on corporate requirements, the project cycle, economic and financial analysis and financial intermediary projects.
Having worked as the lead operations officer for the LAC Vice Presidency and the Africa Vice Presidency, Mr. Goldberg has reviewed and helped to design complex multisectoral projects, including SOPs and MPAs, emergency response projects and regional projects. He has also helped teams to design operations in Finance and Private Sector Development, Agriculture, Energy, Digital Development and Climate Resilience in all regions. Mr. Goldberg is also experienced with emergency response projects as well as regional projects.
Given the complexity of the assignment, Mr. Goldberg has a unique set of skills and experience that make him uniquely qualified for the work.
If the assignment is in the LAC Region, add: “His fluency in Spanish and working knowledge of Brazilian Portuguese will allow him to work with counterparts as well as local Bank staff.”
See also the attached CV for dates of assignments, job titles and responsibilities in different institutions as well as positions in the World Bank and CGAP.
Financial Sector Project Design
Mr. Goldberg is a registered independent contractor with the World Bank (#VMP 0000776). He is an expert with more than 25 years of experience in financial sector operations and best practices, from microfinance through small and medium enterprise (SME) financing. His experience covers financial sector project design and implementation from fragile states to low income and medium income countries. Mr. Goldberg is familiar with Bank requirements, guidance and good practice examples for financial sector projects, as well as financial sector components in other sectors (agriculture, renewable energy, social protection, housing, private sector development, and climate resilience). He has experience in guarantee funds, lines of credit and equity funds, as well as platforms providing multiple financial services. He was a co-author of Environmental and Social Standard #9 (Financial Intermediaries) and a reviewer of the Paris Alignment requirements for World Bank financial sector projects. For this reason, he can integrate various operational challenges into financial sector projects.
Given the complexity of the assignment, Mr. Goldberg has a unique set of skills and experience that make him uniquely qualified for the work.
If the assignment is in the LAC Region, add: “His fluency in Spanish and working knowledge of Brazilian Portuguese will allow him to work with counterparts as well as local Bank staff.”
See also the attached CV for dates of assignments, job titles and responsibilities in various positions in the World Bank.
Financial Intermediary Financing (FIF) Design and Annex
Mr. Goldberg was the author of the World Bank Financial Intermediary Financing (FIF) Guidance Note (2024), which applies to all projects with lines of credit, guarantee funds and other risk-sharing mechanisms, and equity funds and investment platforms. He also has authored more than a dozen FIF annexes and reviewed more than 50 while serving on the Development Effectiveness units of the LAC and Africa Vice Presidencies. Mr. Goldberg led the effort to adjust FIF practices and requirements to match the unique challenges of COVID, providing training to teams and counterparts on how to preserve the financial sector and return to commercial practices over time.
Recent examples of FIF annexes include projects in Türkiye (export finance), Ecuador (Finance for Climate Resilience infrastructure), Thailand (urban development), Malawi (MSME finance), Sierra Leone (MSME finance), South Africa (infrastructure platform financing), and two East and Southern Africa Regional projects (renewable energy; green resilient housing development).
Given the complexity of the assignment, Mr. Goldberg has a unique set of skills and experience that make him uniquely qualified for the work.
If the assignment is in the LAC Region, add: “His fluency in Spanish and working knowledge of Brazilian Portuguese will allow him to work with counterparts as well as local Bank staff.”
See also the attached CV for dates of assignments, job titles and responsibilities in various positions in the World Bank.
Get in touch
For task team leaders and partners.
Available for engagements on financial sector, SME, operations, training, and Financial Intermediary Financing work. Best reached by email.
- Email goldbergmikej@gmail.com
- Phone (443) 949-4656
- Location Bethesda, Maryland