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Washington D.C., October 15, 2008
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, today announced that Argentina’s Banco CMF S.A. has joined the IFC Global Trade Finance Program as an issuing bank.
The IFC Global Trade Finance Program supports trade with the emerging markets worldwide by providing risk mitigation. By extending and complementing the banks’ capacity to deliver trade finance solutions, the program aims to increase developing countries’ share of global trade and promote South-South flows of goods and services. The program supports an extensive network of banks globally and has provided guarantees for $4 billion to facilitate trade.
Patricio Ovalle Head of Banco CMF’s International Division, said, “For CMF, trade finance is a strategic product for developing the middle market. Through the program, the bank will improve its trade finance capacity by broadening its access to international markets and extending its geographic coverage to better serve clients.”
James Peter Scriven, IFC Director for Financial Markets in Latin America, said, “IFC’s Global Trade Finance Program will allow Banco CMF to increase its trade finance business worldwide as well as enhance its ability to provide efficient trade solutions to clients, especially those in the small and medium enterprise and agribusiness sectors.”
Since the launch of the IFC Global Trade Finance Program in 2005, IFC has issued $900 million in guarantees to facilitate trade flows with Latin America and the Caribbean. The network of issuing banks for the region has expanded to 26 banks in 12 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Saint Lucia, and Uruguay. More than 40 percent of the guarantees issued benefited small and midsize businesses from the region and supported interregional trade flows between emerging market nations. The program is managed in the region by Antonio Alves, Head of Trade Finance for Latin America and the Caribbean Region.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, creates opportunity for people to escape poverty and improve their lives. We foster sustainable economic growth in developing countries by supporting private sector development, mobilizing private capital, and providing advisory and risk mitigation services to businesses and governments. Our new investments totaled $16.2 billion in fiscal 2008, a 34 percent increase over the previous year. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
or
www.ifc.org/gtfp
.
About Banco CMF
Banco CMF was founded in Argentina in 1978 as a financial services provider and was licensed to operate as a commercial bank in 1996. It is now a wholesale bank that offers added-value services to small and midsize companies and a wide range of financial products mainly targeting foreign trade and foreign exchange services. The bank also finances working capital and capital-market and investment-based products. For more information, visit
www.bancocmf.com.ar
.
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