It was, the IFC said, its largest offer ever in the 10 years that it has floated such instruments.

The bond, which matures April 2014, has a coupon of 3.0 per cent and is priced to yield 137.75 basis points over the benchmark US treasury bond.

The bond issue is a funding source for the IFC's loan pool earmarked for development spending.

The lending agency, whose programmes are largely targetted at the private sector in developing countries, funding programme is budgeted at US$8 billion this fiscal year.

"This successful bond issue will further strengthen IFC's financial position and its ability to respond to the global economic crisis," said IFC executive vice president and CEO Lars Thunell in a statement after the offer closed.

IFC executive Nina Shapiro also described the take-up as remarkable in a period of uncertainty, but also an endorsement of IFC's track record as an issuer of debt.

"The overwhelming demand was an affirmation of IFC's premier standing in credit markets, and the strong record IFC has established for its global bond issuance," said Shapiro, vice president for finance.

IFC debt has triple A rating.

In a breakdown of the subscriptions, IFC said the largest take-up was by investors from this hemisphere, with 40 per cent, followed by Asia, 36 per cent of the bonds, while Middle Easterners bought up 24 per cent.

The issue attracted orders from 88 leading financial institutions.

BNP Paribas, HSBC, and JP Morgan were joint lead managers for the issue; with Barclays, Daiwa Securities, Nomura, RBC Capital Markets, and UBS Investment Bank as co-lead managers.

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