The Private Sector Department of the Inter-American Development Bank announced today the signing by Banco Santander Central Hispano, S.A. of the new Confirming Bank Agreement under its Regional Trade Finance Facilitation Program (TFFP) in a signing event with IDB President, Luis Alberto Moreno.
Under the TFFP, the IDB extends guarantees to cover letters of credit, promissory notes, bid bonds, performance bonds, advance payment bonds and other instruments used in international trade transactions.
The participation of Banco Santander Central Hispano, S.A. as a Confirming Bank under the TFFP constitutes one more component in the long-standing and successful relation between Banco Santander Central Hispano S.A. and the IDB.
TFFP
Launched and rolled-out in 2005, the TFFP is an effective tool for the IDB to support economic growth through the expansion of financing available for international trade activities of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries.
The TFFP currently comprises a network of over 83 Confirming Banks belonging to 43 different international banking groups in over 28 countries, and 24 Issuing Banks in 13 LAC countries with over US$460 million in approved credit lines. To date, the IDB has issued guarantees for over US$110 million in support of 136 individual international trade transactions totaling US$149 million.
Banco Santander Central Hispano, S.A.
Santander is the world's 10th largest financial group by market value. The Group's main business areas are: Retail Banking, Wholesale Banking and Asset Management and Insurance. Santander has more than 129,000 employees, 66 million customers and 2.4 million shareholders. It is an international group which combines a solid local presence with strong global capacities a a strong local presence in Latin America, through subsidiaries in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia. It is expected that these subsidiaries will soon join the TFFP as well.