The 21st century has seen the rapid expansion of international development finance from emerging market economies. Much of this is from national development banks: Brazil's National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES), the China Development Bank (CDB), the Eximbank of China (China Eximbank), the South African Development Bank (SADC) and Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), among others, are providing increasingly large amounts of finance for development projects both within their own countries and beyond their borders. In addition, the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russian, India, China and (since 2010) South Africa) appear to be well on their way to creating their own collective BRICS Development Bank. The survey articles in this special section offer initial assessments of this emerging market finance, with special attention to questions about its nature, origins and consequences.