Bucharest, Romania, February 13, 2014
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has extended a $20 million trade credit line to UniCredit Tiriac Bank in order to channel additional financing to the bank’s clients working in import and export in Romania and boost economic growth.
With IFC’s credit line, UniCredit Tiriac Bank will increase its product offerings and financial support for corporate customers in Romania engaged in international trade, helping those firms reach new markets, expand operations, and create jobs.
UniCredit Tiriac Bank is the fifth bank in Romania to join IFC’s Global Trade Finance Program (GTFP). The program promotes trade in emerging markets by providing partial or full guarantees for individual trade transactions backed by IFC’s triple-A rating.
“IFC is an important partner for us,” said Rasvan Radu, CEO of UniCredit Tiriac Bank. “This credit line will significantly improve our capacity to support the trade activities of our existing and future customers.”
This new trade line represents a continuation of the cooperation between IFC and UniCredit Tiriac Bank. In July 2013, IFC extended a €29 million ($39 million) loan to UniCredit Tiriac Bank to support the development of small and medium-sized companies.
“IFC is dedicated to supporting private sector development in Romania and our cooperation with UniCredit Tiriac Bank is an important part of that strategy,” said Aftab Ahmed, IFC Director for Financial Markets and Private Equity Funds in Europe, Middle East and North Africa. “By joining the GTFP network, UniCredit Tiriac Bank will reduce transaction costs and improve access to finance for its customers.”
In June 2013, IFC invested in UniCredit Tiriac Bank’s local currency bond alongside more than 30 local and international institutional investors. The over-subscribed 550 million lei ($159 million) bond issue was part of a program to diversify the lender’s financial sources and the largest local currency bond issued on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Also, this was the first bond issue by a financial institution in Romania since the start of the financial crisis in 2008. IFC was the largest investor with 125 million lei ($36 million).
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. Working with private enterprises in more than 100 countries, we use our capital, expertise, and influence to help eliminate extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity. In FY13, our investments climbed to an all-time high of nearly $25 billion, leveraging the power of the private sector to create jobs and tackle the world’s most pressing development challenges. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
.
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About UniCredit Tiriac Bank
UniCredit Tiriac Bank is part of UniCredit, easily the number one group on the CEE banking market, that operates by far the leading network throughout the countries of the region. In Romania, UniCredit Tiriac Bank is one of the main financial institutions, a truly universal commercial bank, providing high quality products and services for all the customer segments in the market. We are committed to generating value for our customers, we consistently strive to be easy to deal with and we are dedicated to the development of the communities in which we live. For more information, please visit
www.unicredittiriac.ro/
and facebook.com/UniCreditTiriacBank.
