At a signing ceremony with IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno, the Structured and Corporate Finance Department of the IDB announced today that Banco de la Producción S.A. (BANPRO) of Nicaragua is joining the IDB’s Trade Finance Facilitation Program (TFFP). 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 TFFP can help BANPRO to further increase its trade finance business and to take advantage of the TFFP’s countercyclical effects during times of volatility in trade finance flows.
TFFP
Launched and rolled out in 2005, the TFFP is an effective tool for the IDB to support economic reactivation and growth through the expansion of financing available for international trade activities in Latin American and Caribbean countries. The TFFP currently consists of a network of 134 confirming banks belonging to 61 different international banking groups in over 37 countries, and 31 issuing banks in 14 Latin American and Caribbean countries, with more than US$577 million in approved credit lines. To date, the IDB has issued guarantees for more than US$266 million in support of 301 individual international trade transactions totaling US$346 million.
Banco de la Producción S.A. (BANPRO)
BANPRO is the largest Nicaraguan bank in terms of total assets, accounting for nearly 28 percent of the market, and offers a wide variety of financial products and services to corporate clients as well as consumers. The bank is part of the Promerica Financial Group, whose majority shareholder is Promerica Financial Corporation (PFC) of Panama, which has a majority participation in several banks and finance companies in Central America and the Caribbean. BANPRO has the largest branch and ATM network in Nicaragua, serving its customers through more than 53 offices across the country.
BANPRO is already a major trade finance player in the Nicaraguan banking sector. The TFFP can help BANPRO further strengthen its trade finance activities by broadening and, in times of volatility, stabilizing its sources of trade finance through the TFFP confirming bank network.