IFC to add at least one Haitian bank to GTFP by year-end

The World Bank's private sector arm IFC plans to add at least one more bank in Haiti to its global trade finance program (GTFP) by December, Antonio Alves, IFC's senior regional head of trade finance for the Latin American and Caribbean region, told BNamericas. Capital Bank became the first Haitian bank to join the GTFP in 2007. The bank is the country's third largest, and IFC provided it with a US$2mn trade facility by means of the GTFP, in addition to advisory services to strengthen the bank's capacity in the trade finance area. Alves said there are two or three banks in Haiti that could be included in the GTFP and one of those will join before the end of this year. The GTFP has become especially important since Haiti's devastating earthquake in January as the country "has to import almost everything today," Alves noted. Last year, IFC made a US$4mn equity investment in Haiti's largest bank, Sogebank. The investment included an advisory to help the bank target SMEs by creating a special SME unit. Since launching the GTFP in 2005, IFC has issued US$2.9bn in guarantees to facilitate trade flows with Latin America and the Caribbean, with a network of 51 issuing banks in the region. More than 60% of the guarantees issued in the region have benefitted local SMEs and supported interregional trade flows between emerging markets.