IDB welcomes Banco Regional as issuing under its Trade Finance Facilitation Program (TFFP)

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced today that Banco Regional of Paraguay joined the IDB’s Trade Finance Facilitation Program (TFFP). Under the TFFP, the IDB extends guarantees to cover letters of credit, promissory notes, bid bonds, performance bonds, advance payment bonds and other instruments used in international trade transactions.

The TFFP can help Banco Regional to further increase its trade finance business and to take advantage of the TFFP’s countercyclical effects during times of volatility in trade finance flows.

TFFP - Launched and rolled-out in 2005, the TFFP is an effective tool for the IDB to support economic reactivation and growth through the expansion of financing available for international trade activities of Latin American and Caribbean countries.

The TFFP currently comprises a network of 203 confirming banks belonging to 74 different international banking groups in over 55 countries, and 49 issuing banks in 15 Latin American and Caribbean countries with over $868.5 million in approved credit lines. To date, the IDB has issued guarantees for over $488 million in support of 619 individual international trade transactions totaling $636.4 million.

Banco Regional - Banco Regional (BR) is a Paraguayan bank with more than $574 million in assets and 23 branches. BR is mainly a corporate bank with selective retail banking for individuals in the southern region of Paraguay and trade finance is a vital component in the bank’s financial services as most of its clients are importers and exporters. The bank will strive to integrate more of a universal banking model, following the merger with the Paraguayan branch of ABN Amro. | BID