OFID and IDB launch strategic trade finance partnership

Vienna, Austria, July 23, 2015. The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have signed a co-financing agreement to jointly promote development and economic growth in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region through the expansion of trade financing to LAC Banks. OFID and IDB will build on the existing Trade Finance Facilitation Program (TFFP) to provide lines of credit to commercial banks in the LAC region to broaden the sources of trade finance available for LAC importing and exporting companies and support their internationalization.

In support of global and intraregional integration through trade, this agreement will further strengthen OFID’s long-standing partnership with the IDB and widen OFID’s presence in the trade finance market in the LAC region.

Commenting on the agreement, OFID Director-General Suleiman J Al-Herbish said: “In a globalized world, we need to work together and build effective partnerships. OFID welcomes the emergence of new directions of trade and investments and of a new development cooperation landscape. A partner such as IDB with its vast range of market knowledge in Latin American and the Caribbean will enable OFID to step up its activities to reach more beneficiaries in the region.”

Gema Sacristán, Chief of the IDB's Financial Markets Division, also commented: “This partnership furthers the efforts of IDB to reach out to strategic partners such as OFID in its quest to increase the amount of available financing for trade activity in LAC. Since trade is a fundamental economic driver for the region, we believe the partnership between OFID and IDB is a groundbreaking initiative."

About IDB

Founded in 1959, the Inter-American Development Bank is the main source of multilateral financing for development in LAC. The bank’s TFFP, launched in 2005, comprises 102 issuing banks in 21 Latin America and Caribbean countries, totaling more than US$2.8bn in approved lines. Besides fostering international trade in the region, the program assists banks in broadening their international funding sources, and providing knowledge creation through technical cooperation.

About OFID

OFID is a multilateral development finance institution established in 1976 by the Member States of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The primary aim of OFID is to contribute to the social and economic development of low-income countries. By the end of June 2015, OFID had committed over US$18bn in development financing to 134 countries spread across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe.