Washington/Milan, October 12, 2010—
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has joined with the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) in a €250 million, up to three-year risk-sharing facility with Intesa Sanpaolo to support trade transactions originated through emerging-market banks in up to 47 countries.
IFC will provide risk share with Intesa Sanpaolo for up to €100 million, and OFID will provide a counter-guarantee to IFC for up to $50 million. The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency has also expressed interest in supporting the project. Intesa Sanpaolo, which has a far-reaching trade platform in the project’s targeted regions, will act as the facility’s global partner bank.
Through Intesa Sanpaolo’s network of issuing banks in emerging markets, the project will support at least $750 million in trade finance. It will support banks and companies in Europe and Central Asia, a region that was severely affected by the financial crisis. The project also will facilitate trade finance in Latin American and the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa.
The investment marks the beginning of the second phase of the multi-stakeholder Global Trade Liquidity Program, which has supported over $8 billion in trade finance. The program’s second phase is an unfunded risk-mitigation program that mobilizes risk-sharing capacity from development finance institutions and governments to benefit both emerging-market issuing banks and companies in the real sector.
“IFC is proud to support this important effort to promote trade and small and medium enterprises in emerging markets,” said Jyrki Koskelo, IFC Vice President for Global Industries. “As we move into the second phase of the Global Trade Liquidity Program, our ability to guarantee trade finance projects by partnering with private sector banks and development finance institutions will be key to our success.”
Gaetano Micciche, Intesa Sanpaolo’s General Manager, said, “This agreement testifies to Intesa Sanpaolo’s strong relationship capability across the world. This opportunity to increase and develop international commerce shows our commitment to supporting solutions and plans for entrepreneurs to assert themselves and to consolidate their own presence internationally, especially in emerging countries.”
Suleiman Al-Herbish, OFID Director General, said, “The concerted actions of our three institutions will support trade flows in a number of OFID beneficiary countries. We are pleased to note that this program is estimated to generate €750 million of incremental trade by September 2012.”
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in developing countries. We create opportunity for people to escape poverty and improve their lives. We do so by providing financing to help businesses employ more people and supply essential services, by mobilizing capital from others, and by delivering advisory services to ensure sustainable development. In a time of global economic uncertainty, our new investments climbed to a record $18 billion in fiscal 2010. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
.
For more information about OFID,
please visit
www.ofid.org
.
