The Inter-American Development Bank and Caja de Ahorros y Pensiones de Barcelona (La Caixa), a major Spanish savings institution, today exchanged letters of intent to cooperate on projects to boost the economic and social development impact of remittances sent from Spain by Latin American and Caribbean migrants.
IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias and La Caixa’s Assistant General Director Julio Lage González took part in the ceremony held at the IDB headquarters in Washington, DC.
La Caixa and the IDB, the leading source for multilateral lending in Latin America and the Caribbean, agree on the need to improve the economic and social conditions for migrants and their families as well as their access to formal financial services.
Through its Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), the IDB is carrying out a program aimed at reducing the costs of remittances by stimulating competition among providers of remittance services, promoting the dissemination of information among migrants and improving the regulatory frameworks for financial services.
MIF also supports Latin American and Caribbean microcredit and savings institutions in designing remittance-related financial products and services in order to foster local economic development and the inclusion of the beneficiaries of remittances in the formal financial system.
La Caixa has helped Latin American financial institutions make remittance distribution systems more efficient and reach low-income groups with products and services.
Cooperation among the IDB, MIF and La Caixa is expected to yield more financial and technical resources to assist Latin American financial institutions that focus on low-income clients.
Madrid Conference on Remittances
The MIF, an autonomous fund managed by the IDB, will hold a conference in Madrid on Tuesday, January 28, on the economic and social impact of remittances sent from Spain by Latin American and Caribbean immigrants.
The conference, which will be held at the Spanish Ministry of Economy (Paseo de la Castellana 162), will highlight a study on remittances, “Las Remesas de Emigrantes entre España y Latinoamérica”, conducted by the Spanish Confederation of Savings Institutions, Caja Murcia, Caja El Monte and the consulting firm SADAI, with support from the MIF and Spain’s Ministry of Economy.
The event, which will bring together Spanish government officials and bankers from Spain and Latin America, will underscore the growing importance of the Latin American immigrant communities in Spain.