OFID extends trade finance loan to Paraguayan commercial bank

Vienna, Austria, May 26, 2015. The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) has signed an US$25m trade finance term loan with Banco Regional S.A.E.C.A.(Banco Regional), Paraguay. The funds will be made available for the financing of imports and exports of a wide variety of products, mostly in the agricultural area.

Banco Regional is the third largest bank in Paraguay and has focused its activities on agri-business, where the bank has a market share of 25%. It is the only bank in Paraguay that is headquartered in the agriculturally-rich southern part of the country. Agriculture is a strategic sector for Paraguay in terms of foreign exchange generation and employment.

The agreement was signed by the OFID Director-General Mr Suleiman J Al-Herbish and Banco Regional Executive Chairman Mr Raul Vera and Director Mr Francisco Yanagida.  This is OFID’s second term loan to Banco Regional. The first was a US$10m line of credit signed in 2013 that supported lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the food and agriculture sector.

OFID has been active in Paraguay since 1978, having extended public sector loans and grants in support of the country’s transportation, energy, health, education, urban development, national development banks, agriculture and water supply and sanitation sectors. Under its private sector lending window, OFID has provided loans and lines of credit in support of SMEs, agricultural businesses and the transportation sector through direct funding to projects in cooperation with other development agencies.